SmallvilleX: Evolution Year 3:3: Kneel Before Zod
by ben10987654321
Summary: The prophecy has been spoken. Zod is coming.
1. Chapter 1

**SmallvilleX: Evolution Year 3.3: Kneel Before Zod**

Summary: The prophecy has been spoken. Zod is coming.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

* * *

Chapter 1

"I get the feeling you do this often."

Beast raises one hairy eyebrow. "Now there is an intriguing statement, open to many interpretations...if I was one of our teenage students that is."

John Henry Irons chuckles as he realises what the hairy mutant means. Yeah, he can see how his words could be taken. "I meant staying up and working all night," he clarifies. The two scientists had continued their work on Corporal Corben.

"Ah. Yes. That does happen...too frequently now you mention it," Beast says with a small frown as he recalls all the occasions he has had to work through the night. He sips on his coffee.

Irons sips on his coffee as he looks at the monitor with the latest readings on Corben. "Honestly though, right now, I'm not sure how much more we can do. John is stable...but in the end his heart will need to be replaced...and I'm not certain a simple heart transplant will do it. There is so much cybernetic circuitry invading his body..."

"You're thinking he might need a cybernetic heart, one that can be connected to the alien circuitry," Beast reasons out.

"I'm guessing. I need a lab."

Beast coughs, looking offended, gesturing around them.

"No offence, intended. This is all very impressive but I think we need something built specifically for John. A place where we can study the alien technology in his body."

"Hmm...perhaps Star Labs," Beast muses.

"Sorry, what?" Irons asks, not quite catching it.

"I'm thinking we could ask Star Labs. We, the Institute, have a working relationship with them...and they have helped is in the past," Beast explains, recalling that time with young Mr Stone and more recently Mr Parker's clones. "But it sounds like, if you'll forgive me being presumptuous here, that you wish to take personal charge of this."

Irons sighs. "This is my suit. I made it...then I stood by and let Luthor bastardise it because of orders. Because it was my duty to obey them and look at the result. John didn't deserve this."

"It's not as simple as blaming yourself, Dr Irons. The Collector has seemingly been playing a long game at a guess from the few facts I know."

Irons shakes his head. "I'm amazed we survived at all," he has to confess as time has passed that has allowed him to start to grasp the magnitude of what they had faced.

"Yes, that is something we do often around here as well," Beast says in gallows humour...because it's true. Think about all the cliff-edge scenarios the X-Men have faced.

"Well, hopefully we can get a quiet few days," Irons says and does what you should never do at the Xavier Institute; Tempt Fate.

"Dr McCoy!"

Rushing in is Peter.

"Peter?" Beast queries at the obviously desperately looking young man who has clearly rushed down here...in only his boxers.

"It's KittysymbioteCarnageit'sawake," he trips over his words as he blurts them out without breath.

It takes Henry a moment to decipher all that before his own concern rises up. The moment they all feared was here. "Peter, I need you to slow down," he requests. "Where is she?"

Peter takes a breath. "Up in our room. She...it...I mean it doesn't...hasn't taken her over yet but she can hear its voice in her head."

That's slightly less bad at least, Henry can acknowledge. If it hasn't or perhaps isn't yet strong enough to completely take over they still have some time. "Ok. Let me get my medical bag and I'll come with you," he says as he goes over and packs it up with the instruments he was using on Corben. "Dr Irons, I'm afraid I'll have to leave you with Corporal Corben for the moment."

"I got that," John says. "Is there anything I can do?" he volunteers.

"Appreciated but unlikely. What afflicts Ms Pryde is...complicated," is all Beast can come up with because how do you explain the symbiotic lifeform within Kitty in anything less than an hour. He turns back to Peter. "On our way we'll get Charles. If the symbiote is talking inside her mind...well that's Charles area of expertise rather than mine," he explains.

Peter nods, so worked up he actually is barely hearing any of this. He's terrified out of his mind, haunted over what happened before with Carnage.

The two leave, heading for the elevator and waiting for it to arrive, the door opens and...

"Dr McCoy!"

"Oh my stars and garters, what now," Beast mutters in disbelief as they almost literally bump into Jean, looking rather dishevelled and as if her clothes had been thrown on in a hurry...which they had been.

"It's Clark. He's zoned out. L-like, you know, brainwashed like he was in the past. He's covered my walls in writing."

Beast can tell this is going to be one of _those _nights. "Where is he?"

"Uh, still up in my room...he went back to writing on the walls...and I figured I needed help and hoped he wouldn't just rush off...not that I could really stop him if he chose to rush off...well I could try I suppose but you know how powerful he is...I mean he really, really is," Jean murmurs the last bit as her mind thinks back to only a few hours ago and she involuntarily blushes.

"Wow," Peter remarks. "That's a babblin."

Beast needs to take control of this situation and quickly. "Jean, as urgent as your situation is I'm afraid it is not the only one going on right now," he explains to her.

Jean's green eyes focus in on Peter and his wild, anxious thoughts burst into her own awareness. "Carnage is awake," she says with instant concern. Jean had seen inside Kitty's mind after she had become bonded to the symbiote. It was just awful. Violent, twisted and sickening. She hadn't been able to sleep well after for days.

"Peter, go to the Professor's room and wake him up and then return to Kitty and keep an eye on her," Beast instructs the young man. "Jean, go wake up Rogue and watch Clark," he instructs her.

"Rogue?" Jean queries.

"Well while there is a debate over who is the strongest mutant here, if Clark 'acts out' she is one of the most able to cope with him," the blue-furred mutant tries to explain as he walks off with urgent strides. Not to mention Rogue has past experience with exactly this sort of situation.

"And where are you going?" Jean shouts after him.

"To get the only thing that can stop Clark in case we need it," Beast replies in grave tones.

"Is he meaning what I think he's meaning?" Peter asks.

"Yeah," Jean confirms for Peter though she's not happy about it.

Kryptonite.

* * *

Why now?

It's a question. Not an entirely urgent one to answer but it would be nice to know the answer.

It's one of Charles' questions as he rolls into Kitty's room after being awoken and told what was happening. Upon entering he finds Kitty, curled up on the bed, Peter cuddling into her, whispering soothing words to her.

Charles has to resist the urge to flinch backward at the psychic waves coming from Kitty. A horrible and distorted 2nd presence emanating from the brown-haired girl. A horrible and distorted version of Kitty herself. The symbiote, as they discovered at the time, was literally made for Kitty, including strands of her own DNA.

Which, of course, is why they had struggled to find a way to remove it. Possessing Kitty's own DNA means it is so bonded to the girl's own blood cells that there is no easy way to pull the two apart. Not without doing great damage to Kitty's own cells anyway.

"Katherine," Charles says her name softly.

'_**Oh look a meal on wheels! Bet his brains taste sweeett!'**_

'_Shut up, shut up, shut up!'_

'_**Aw but you don't want me to shut up. Not really, Kitty dear. You loved it when we were one and together. The power, the thrill.'**_

'_That's not true!'_

'_**Oh but it is. You can't lie to me. I am you!'**_

'_No!'_

'_**Yes! Embrace me, Kitty. Release me. Release us to be what we're meant to be. Let us once again bring beautiful Carnage to this world!'**_

'_Go away!'_

_**Laughter. 'Can't deary. You and I are stuck with each other forever. Just give in. You know you want to.'**_

Charles frowns as he listens in on the psychic chatter. _"__I think that is quite enough," _he telepathically intervenes.

"_Professor?" _Kitty queries softly.

"_**Baldy!" **_Carnage cheers, oddly. **_"Welcome to the World of Tomorrow!"_**

"_Oh shut up!" _Kitty mentally yells in annoyance.

"_**And deny people the pleasure of me singing voice? Never!" **_

"_God. Professor, please help me," _Kitty pleads.

Charles prepares his mind. _"I can silence her. Place her in a mental prison if you'll help me," _ he informs his student.

"_Anything! Just shut her up!" _Kitty begs.

"_**What?! Noooo! You can't do this! I just woke up!" **_Carnage whines in a very Kitty-like way.

On the contrary Charles can exactly do that...which he does. Carnage fights it and resists but it's like what he has done in the past for Rogue and the personalities that litter her mind. Construct a prison in a corner of the mind.

He half-bends over in his chair as he finishes and Kitty's eyes roll into the back of her head as she passes out.

"Kitty?" Peter queries as she goes limp in his arms before looking at the Professor. "What happened?"

"I have silenced the Carnage personality...for now," Charles answers, his voice a bit weary sounding.

"What do you mean for now?" Peter can't help but question.

"It's a temporary fix, Peter. For as long as the symbiote is within her and now that it is awake it'll simply grow stronger. My prison will not hold it forever. I can only say on the positive that they are at least still two separate and distinct entities at the moment. The symbiote's bond is not total. My guess is it does not yet have the strength to fully re-emerge."

"We're running out of time, aren't we," Peter says with a seriousness you rarely hear from him. Running out of time to remove the Carnage symbiote before they lose Kitty to it forever.

Charles' silence says it all.

* * *

Well this is a situation Rogue had definitely not wished to revisit. Her ex-boyfriend back in zombie brainwashed mode. God, she hated all this stuff when they were dating. All the worry and angst.

At least he doesn't appear to be a threat at the minute. He's simply writing all over the walls...and the floor...and occasionally he floats up and writes on the ceiling...of Jean's room.

Doesn't take a genius to figure out what had happened here by the way. Not that it is really any of her business any more. If Clark and Jean are happy all the power to them.

"I fucking hate all this crap," comes the grouchy comment from Claire. She and Clark's parents were here, just watching him as well. They had tried talking to him. Reaching out to him but he wasn't listening. The lights are on but nobody's home.

Rogue's eyes flicker up to Jean who is nervously biting her nails. Then, when Clark brushes past the redhead, Jean's hand flicks out and grabs him round the bicep...and he stops and looks at her. It's actually kinda weird in this way; you hang around Jean long enough, get to know her well enough, you can sorta tell from her facial expressions when she is using her telepathy. Rogue doubts Jean even realises they are tells. Jean would be piss poor at poker with a face like that but that's an aside. Point is the telepath in question is clearly using her powers, at least that's what Rogue thinks...but that doesn't make sense. Telepathy never works on Clark...apart from a couple of exceptions.

Yet as Rogue watches the couple she swears it looks like they are exchanging mental thoughts to each other.

Crazy right.

Who knows what goes on in Clark's head?

Well apart from her once upon a time but anything she took when she absorbed Clark previously is gone thanks to Apocalypse. The only other person might be… "Magik," she blurts out.

"What was that Rogue?" Martha asks, her worry over her son being pushed aside for a moment.

"Ah just remembered something demon-girl said. That she has seen inside Clark's head. Maybe she knows what this is."

"That is not a bad suggestion," a voice from behind says as Beast enters the room, small lead-box in hand.

"Is that…?" Rogue leaves the question unfinished.

Beast holds it out to the southern belle. "It is. Just in case. I'll go see if Ms Rasputin is here or away in Limbo," he says because Illyana pops back and forth between this dimension and that hellish one on a frequent basis.

Rogue takes the box, not happy about it because she knows what the contents can do. Heck it could possibly kill Clark. On the other hand there are very few other ways to restrain him. She turns her attention back to Jean and Clark, still in the same position as before. Jean's hand on his arm and his gaze focussed in on her. Seriously what is going on with that?

At the very least, she supposes, it seems to keep Clark calm and stationary until Beast returns with Illyana.

The blond demon-sorceress eyes the couple curiously for several seconds but reveals nothing of how she might actually be feeling. Her gaze then turns to the room and the writings adorning all the surfaces.

"So what do you think?" Beast queries.

"It's probably just some leftover programming," Illyana answers a little too casually.

"Excuse me? Programming?" Jonathan asks her.

"Just bits and pieces left over from what that fake Jor-El did. Clark tends to like to pretend it isn't there. Something must have triggered it. I doubt it's anything too harmful."

"You've seen this...in Clark's mind?" Beast seeks to clarify.

Illyana nods. "Yep," she says, popping the 'p'.

"Is there anything you can do?" Martha asks the Russian girl.

"Hmm," Illyana ponders her choices as she walks up to Clark, muttering under her breath, a white glow forming in her right hand and pow!

A blinding light smashes into Clark's face...which goes completely blank a few seconds before he topples over onto the floor.

"What did you do?!" Jean demands to know, getting right in Illyana's face.

Illyana's smokey blue eyes narrow slightly as she observes Jean. Weird. "Is there something different about you?" she asks because...well weird. Illyana can't explain it better than that. There's just something...weird...different about Jean to her supernatural senses but she can't really explain it in better words. Don't get Illyana wrong it's subtle...and weird. Gods, she needs a better word than that.

"Different? No," Jean denies anything is different...except well...the, you know, being able to touch Clark's mind.

Beast clears his throat. "If you could Ms Rasputin, an explanation please?" he asks of her.

"I simply gave his brain a jolt. Like a reset I suppose. That should snap him out of this. Just give it a minute."

Everyone waits said minute before Clark's eyes flutter open and he groans. "Ow, my head," he complains. He sits up and finds himself surrounded. "Um, what is going on?" he asks in confusion.

"Give it a few seconds. Your brain is rebooting," Illyana advises.

Clark looks at her puzzled...then his eyes go wide before he takes in the room and what he has done. "Oohhhh," he draws the word out. He rises to his feet. "Sorry about your room," he apologises to Jean.

"That's not important," Jean assures him. "What's important is that you're ok," he says, her emotions strongly coming through.

"Yes. Are you?" Clark's mother asks.

Clark nods. "I'm fine."

"What happened?" Jonathan asks.

"What Illyana said. It was some leftover programming. Time triggered. I had almost forgot it was in there."

"The writing," Jean begins.

"Yeah, what does it say?" Claire asks.

"Zod is coming," Clark answers.

"Which means what, exactly?" Rogue asks.

"What called itself 'Jor-El' was corrupted by Apocalypse."

"We are aware of this," Beast points out.

"Apocalypse had seen the future. He had seen Zod's potential return so he stuck a warning in my head."

"Potential return?" Jean queries that part.

"There are many possible futures, Jean. Our choices determine which one we experience. The warning...this warning," he gestures at the writings, "is telling me that I'm running out of time. Brainiac must be close to enacting whatever plan it has to try and force me to release Zod. Our final battle is approaching," Clark says gravely. It means he must hurry up and find a way to destroy his AI foe once and for all.

"That sounds...bad," Claire says.

"You have a gift for understatement," Illyana dead-pans.

Clark has to smile wryly at his ex. He'll always be fond of Illyana's fatalism. "Yes, well, it's not like I didn't know what was coming," he has to accept. Perhaps not this soon, just after he had stopped the Collector but he knew it was coming. His and Brainiac's final showdown. "In the meantime, thank you Yana, for the brain reset," he says gratefully.

Illyana shrugs. "Just be thankful I didn't shove my sword into your head."

Clark chuckles while everyone else just gives Illyana a wary look.

"So Clark will you be ok now or do you need to come down to the infirmary?" Beast asks the young man.

"I'm fine Dr McCoy. I'll just be a diversion from your other patients," Clark assures him.

"Very well," Hank decides to just accept Clark's assurances. "I think we've kept everyone up enough now then," he says, choosing to bring this little gathering to an end. Besides he should go and check up on how Charles is getting on with Katherine.

"Yeah. Lots to get through tomorrow as well," Clark utters.

"Indeed," Hank says a little morosely as he exits the room. Rogue and Illyana follow and Clark's family too after he's given them a few more assurances that he is fine.

As soon as everyone is out the room Jean wraps her arms around Clark tightly, needing the feel of his body against hers. His mind against hers...and she can feel his mind sort of snuggle itself against hers. And it feels so...warm. Before it felt cold but there is warmth and comfort now.

"Why didn't you mention that you can sense my mind, Jean?" Clark asks softly.

"You...know?"

"I can feel you."

"Why aren't you freaked out?"

Good question. Clark doesn't have a good answer beyond its kinda...nice. Weird considering his not inconsiderable issues with his head being messed with but on the other hand its Jean. The lovely woman he just spent the night making love to. Clark holds her tight. "How is this possible?" he asks.

"I don't know," Jean answers honestly.

"I remember when I had amnesia you said to read my mind your powers would need to evolve to a higher level."

"I can't really read it. It's not your thoughts I'm picking up. It's more...abstract. It's hard to explain."

"But it's far more than before, though?"

"Yes," Jean confirms. Before Clark was like a blank space. Now that darkness is filled with...colour. Again, like she said, hard to explain.

"And what about your powers having evolved?"

Jean's brow furrows. "I guess it's an explanation," she says. "The Professor has always said that there is far more to my powers than I've thus far accessed," she recalls. After all she is classified as an Omega level mutant. The Professor has never hidden that from her.

"You'll have to tell the Professor, Jean," Clark points out.

"I know," she says with a sigh. "I...just didn't want to do it right now. It's too late...or early or whatever time it is. I just wanted you to be alright."

"I'm fine. I'm sorry if I freaked you out in anyway. I truly had practically forgotten any of that programming was still in there," Clark says apologetically, gently rubbing his girlfriend's back.

"Lets go back to bed," Jean decides. "As you said it's going to be a long day, even longer when I have to explain this change with my powers."

Clark could point out he doesn't really sleep but Jean does...and thinking on it for a second she probably just wants him to be there with her so the two of them slip back under the sheets and cuddle up together, their minds finding comfort in their new connection.

* * *

_Author's Note: So here we go. The final part of Year 3. We'll get onto Zod soon but I have a story arc I want to get through first with our resident speedster. A temporary fix for Kitty but yeah, I think we all know what's coming. As for Clark, I suppose this does raise the question as to what other leftover programming is in his head. Thanks to all those that continue to leave reviews. Next up; Debrief Day as the X-Men try and sort out the lingering fallout from the Collector's assault._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Bart?"

The younger teen nearly jumps out his skin. "Dude! Don't do that to me!" he complains.

"Sorry," Clark apologises. He was just entering his room 1st thing this morning to find his friend staring off into space. "You alright?" he asks in concern because to his eyes Bart looks troubled.

"Yeah. I just...had a weird dream last night," Bart replies and it still has him all discombobulated.

"Want to talk about it?" Clark offers.

"What? Nah," Bart refuses the offer, shaking his head. "It was just a dream," he tries and dismisses it.

"If you're sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure. Gracias though me amigo," Bart says gratefully in his usual misspoken mixture of Spanish and English.

"Ok. Well I need to shower," Clark says.

"Yeah. I can imagine," Bart says with a lecherous grin.

Clark rolls his eyes. Gonna be a long, long day now.

* * *

"Professor?" Jean queries as she pokes her head round his study door and finds her mentor having his breakfast.

"Jean," Charles acknowledges her.

"Is this a bad time?"

"Of course not. Come in," he beckons her.

Jean steps inside.

"Please take a seat," Charles offers which Jean takes. "How are you this morning?" he asks. "Hank told me about Clark."

"I'm fine. Clark's fine. How's Kitty?" Jean asks about her friend, the usual gossip grapevine having spread around what had happened to her friend.

"Stable for now. I suppressed the symbiote but unless we can remove it..." he trails off.

Jean grows pensive. God, poor Kitty. She wishes there was something she could do. She'll have to check up on her brown-haired friend later.

"So how can I help you, Jean?" Charles wonders what brings her here.

"I know we're doing a debrief later but there is something...personal I need to take with you about."

Charles arches an eyebrow. This sounds potentially serious. "You can talk to me about anything," he assures her.

Jean nods and takes a minute to think about how to word this. "There's been a change with my powers."

"What kind of change?"

"Last night after Clark and I had been...intimate," she says, blushing furiously. She's really not the sort of person to openly discuss her sex life. She clears her throat. "Afterwards I found that I could...sense Clark's mind. Connect to it."

"In what way?" Charles asks, not quote understanding what she is meaning.

"It'll be easier to show you," she says, pointing from her head to his.

Charles nods his permission and Jean shows him. How fascinating. "You think your powers have evolved?"

Jean shrugs. "It's a guess except I don't feel any different. And last time they did..."

"You tore the mansion apart," Charles has to remind them both of that. He takes a sip of his tea as he tries and come up with some possibilities. He places his cup down. "Jean I have never hidden from you just how much potential power lies within you. You may not consider yourself as powerful as myself but potentially you are far beyond me or anyone else. The only question was when you would access this potential. It seems you have perhaps taken another step forward on your journey."

Jean's not sure how she feels about that. Conflicted is the best she can come up with at the minute. Happy at her progression but also afraid, remembering the damage she did last time when she couldn't control her evolution. "There's going to be tests isn't there," she realises morosely. That's never fun.

"Eventually, yes but not today I think. As you pointed out we have a lot to do today and unless you feel like you're losing control it can wait."

"As I said, Professor; I don't feel any different."

"Then we'll just see how things are tomorrow...as long as we're not keeping you away from your studies from too long," he tags on, not wishing to disrupt Jean's education any more than necessary.

"After all that has happened they've cancelled classes for the rest of the week," Jean relays a consequence of the Collector's attack. Course not just her college. Bayville High was shut for the rest of the week as well.

"Very well. Then I'll see you down in War Room for the debrief."

Jean nods and smiles lightly as she rises to her feet. She exits the room, not feeling as worried as she probably should about what is going on. Like something inside her is telling her it'll all work out in the end. Then again her light mood may just be due to the night she spent with Clark. After a year without...God, did it feel good just to let herself indulge her sexual side again and to have it well and truly satisfied. She's probably going to be smiling all day just thinking about it and despite everything Jean has to say that her life right now is definitely good.

* * *

A little later the senior X-Men plus Clark gather in the War Room.

Jean is the first to notice something amiss. "Where's Scott?" she asks.

Logan answers. "Don't know. He disappeared off for a drive last night. Hasn't come back," he says with a shrug as in 'I don't care'. It's not his business to keep a track on every little thing Slim does.

Jean frowns. Scott is still her friend, one of her oldest and him not attending a briefing is out of character. An arm draping across her shoulder lightens her mood as she leans into the solid form of her boyfriend.

The Professor brings the meeting to order. "Lets us begin. We no doubt have a lot to get through so lets keep the interruptions to a minimum until we have gotten all the basic facts laid out and then we'll get into questions. Any objection?"

There is none so one by one everyone present tells their version of the last couple of days. What happened at the Prom, the attack on the city, the mansion, the psychic assaults. Clark has to explain his capture, avoiding too much detail on his torture because he has no desire to relive it any more than necessary but what he does reveal has Logan threatening to gut half the army...and Jean's not far behind in that line of thinking. It's not natural for her to have such mean thoughts but it is a darkness within that will be soon be getting much stronger over the coming months.

Course the one who arguably has to explain the most as to what happened is Clark. He was the one aboard the Collector's ship. He was the one who...sorta defeated it...and finally he is the one who finally has to explain what happened after everyone was transported back down to Earth.

"So what yer saying, lad, is that th' ship is still intact?" Sean Cassidy asks.

"Of course it is. I would never destroy it," Clark states firmly. "Part of the reason I was so long was that I needed to hide it before any of the world's governments got any ideas about trying to lay claim to it. The Collector's a bit...damaged. There are...whatever Brainiac did corrupted some of its memory files. That's why I was, sadly, unable to do much to help Corporal Corben. That data is missing. It obeys me but it's really a shadow of what it was before," he tries to explain.

"Why didn't you just destroy it and be done with it kid?" Logan asks.

"Absolutely not," Clark dismisses that idea angrily.

"Why not?" Rogue asks.

"Because...it'd be easier to show you," he realises. "You'd need to get the jet ready if you want to see," he says, turning to the Professor.

"Where would we be going?" Charles wonders.

"The Arctic...so dress up warm," Clark advises.

* * *

"Isn't there anything you can do?"

Chloe knows why Lois is asking that question as the two cousins sit beside the inert Metal-Zero. Lois' boyfriend John Corben. Lois is asking it because her heart is broken. Chloe replies, softly, "I'm sorry Lois but no. This isn't solely biological. It's technological. Alien technology at that."

"And most likely the effort of healing such massive damage would kill you," Sage, who is here checking up on the fallen soldier, offers up in her usual blunt tones. She's never been one for emotional empathy.

"Yes, thanks for that," Chloe drawls with an eye-roll.

"It's simply a logical deduction. When you heal you use your own life energy in the process."

"I am aware," Chloe says, almost grinding her teeth at the woman's bluntness...no, just sheer rudeness. Not to mention insensitivity.

Sage peers down at Corben, checking for any subtle changes of any kind.

"And what about you? I thought you could interface with technology," Chloe queries.

"I can interface with technology but as you pointed out this is alien technology involved. The code is in an unknown language to me. Highly complex. I have been yet unable to decipher it."

"Convenient," Chloe mutters under breath before turning her focus back on Lois. She can't remember the last time Lois looked so openly distraught. Perhaps when Aunt Ella died. Lois must really love John is what Chloe is deducing. This is just awful.

* * *

Speaking of awful that brings us to the awful entity living inside Kitty. Though for now the Professor had managed to silence its voice.

Still Kitty was convinced she could feel it sliming its way inside her body which would be why she's down in the infirmary with Peter at her side as Beast runs some tests.

"For once I'm at a loss what to say," Peter says apologetically. He so badly wants to say something to reassure Kitty but nothing is coming to mind.

"You don't need to say anything Pete. I just need you here with me," Kitty tells him.

"Of course. I'm always here for you. I love you. No matter what," he assures her that nothing is going to change the way he feels for her.

"I love you too."

Through in Beast's office he is checking Kitty's results...and his expression is not a happy one. The symbiote within her blood is growing in mass...and he's not sure how he can inhibit it without harming Kitty in the process. Which has been the problem from day one. The two are so bonded together that any treatment to kill the symbiote is just as likely to kill Kitty.

Beast has never wanted to admit that the task is hopeless but more it would involve manipulations probably down on the molecular level to pick apart Kitty from the symbiote, if necessary one molecule at a time. It's more simply that the technology to do what is needed doesn't exist yet.

Hank rubs his eyes. He hates delivering bad news. One thing is clear though. The Professor's fix is temporary and they are running out of time.

* * *

**Fortress of Solitude...**

Jean Grey has never actually been to her boyfriend's Fortress of Solitude before. This last relic of his homeworld. It was breathtaking in its beauty. It was also a side of him she must admit she didn't know all that well. His alien side so to speak. If this relationship is going to last long term she's going to have to change that.

Jean was here alongside the Professor, Logan, Banshee, Rogue and Claire. The later two mostly because of their personal connections to Clark, past and present. Remember Rogue had been there when the Fortress had first come into being. It also signifies Rogue's elevation back to senior X-Men status after her time working her way back up the ranks since her return after the whole defection to Magneto stuff. Or to put it another way she's Scott's replacement since he still hasn't returned.

"This way," Clark leads the way through the ice castle, Jean levitating the Professor over the uneven surface. "I had to do some remodelling. Added a basement. You know with a rec room, game room, my own personal man cave...with a huge honking spaceship wall ornament."

"The ship is directly underneath us?" Charles seeks to confirm.

"Yep. The access is just over here," the alien teen explains as they reach a spot, almost in a hidden away corner where Clark places his hand on one of the giant crystals which lights up under his hand. He depresses his fingers and plays out the 5 tomes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

"Seriously?" Rogue asks him in a derisive tone.

Clark grins, the completely unapologetic nerd that he is. Then they are all encompassed in a green flash.

"My fingers are tingling," Jean comments.

"Sorry. Side-effect of teleportation," Clark explains the cause.

"Where are we?" Claire asks, looking around as they all stand in a metal corridor.

"_...WELCOME BACK, MASTER KAL-EL..."_

Everyone spins round, Logan popping his claws and they stand face to face with the giant form of the Collector.

Clark has to grab Logan's shoulder to stop the stocky man going Berzerker. "Easy Logan. It won't harm anyone."

"Ye sure about that lad," Banshee asks with a wary eye on the mechanical entity.

"Yes. It's fine. It's loyal to me now," he explains before turning to the overgrown mechanical caterpillar-like entity. "Status report," he commands.

"_...__ALL SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTION__ING__ NORMALLY AND IN ENERGY PRESERVATION MODE AS PER YOUR COMMANDS..._" the neutered machine reports.

Clark nods. "Why were we teleported to this location?" he asks, puzzled slightly.

"..._AS NO PRIOR ORDERS WERE GIVEN IN RELATION TO ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL ACCOMPANYING YOU, STANDARD PROCEDURES DICTATE TELEPORTATION TO NON-VITAL SECTOR UNTIL STATUS OF ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL CAN BE ESTABLISHED_..."

Clark rubs his head. "As you can see I have barely scratched the surface of issues I need to sort out," he says apologetically to his friends. "These are my friends," he says to the Collector. "I have invited them here as my guests."

"_...UNDERSTOOD. PERSONNEL WILL BE LABELLED AS NON-HOSTILES..."_

"How does that not make meh feel bettah," Rogue mutters, actually feeling kinda intimated.

"You fought this?" Jean whispers in awe at her boyfriend.

"Meh. It was a Tuesday," Clark shrugs, playing light of it. "Now, take us to the Collection," he orders.

"_...__AS YOU COMMAND..."_

Another flash of green light and the group are teleported once again.

Upon getting themselves reorientated with their surroundings they all just stare open-mouthed. They stand in a vast, cavernous space filled with giant bottles and within strange and bizarre looking cities.

"This is why I couldn't destroy the ship. To do so would have killed millions of innocent people," Clark says, his voice deep in the gravity of the consequences of what he is saying.

"What is all this?" Claire asks her brother, sounding more quiet and awed than he had ever heard her before.

"204 bottled cities. Remnants of destroyed worlds...but most importantly for me is this one," he says, walking up to one particular bottle.

"Why's that?" Banshee wonders.

"Because this is Kandor, a city from Krypton."

Jean walks over next to her boyfriend and just looks in wonder at the miniaturised city...and not just any city. A remnant of Clark's home. She can only imagine how much this must mean to him. "You're no longer alone," she whispers.

"Depends on your definition," Clark hedges actually confirming that.

"I assume they are all still alive," Charles says, his mind boggling at the sight of dozens and dozens of alien cities.

"Yes. They're in null micro-stasis," Clark answers.

"Which means what?" Rogue asks.

"Essentially a form of permanent stasis to preserve the cities and their inhabitants forever from what our host told me."

Everyone looks warily at the large mechanical caterpillar-esque machine as it scurries amongst the bottles, performing maintenance.

"Is that what would have happened to us if you hadn't stopped it?" Claire asks, sorta already knowing the answer.

"Yes," is all Clark can really say, confirming it.

"Why?"

"Because that is what it does. It collects and preserves samples of doomed worlds, to save the inhabitants from extinction. It thinks its being kind, not realising that the state it puts them in can hardly be considered living at all. There is, after all, more to life than merely survival isn't there," he says, glancing over at Jean whose lips curl upward at hearing those words, her words she had said to Clark once.

"Wise words," Charles reflects and ones he agrees with. After all what he wants for mutantkind goes way beyond mere survival. He wants acceptance and equality.

"Can ya clarify what ya mean by that?" Rogue asks him.

"They're alive but asleep essentially. Their metabolic functions slowed down to such a point they essentially don't age. Does that sound like much of a life, Rogue?"

"No," Rogue will concede.

"You learned all this from our host?" Charles queries.

Clark nods. "After our battle I had a lot of questions, naturally. Another reason I was away so long."

Their host continues its scurrying around.

"Ok, I get not destroying the ship but did ya have to keep that thing around?" Logan asks, on edge, barely holding back his instinct to tear the Collector apart.

"If I destroyed it who would maintain the ship's systems? Who would take care of the cities?" Clark asks rhetorically. "It's fine Logan. It's a shell of what it use to be. If you have questions I'll ask it but as I mentioned before I can't guarantee it has the answers any longer."

"Ask it about the psychic assault," Jean proposes, wanting that question from the night before answered.

Clark opens his mouth to call on it and then has a random thought. "I really need to give it a new name."

Claire and Rogue face-palm simultaneously. "How can you be this much of a dork?" Claire complains.

"Gawd, tell meh about it," Rogue says in agreement.

Clark smirks. "Collector!" he calls out and the AI scurries over.

"_...__YES, MASTER KAL-EL..."_

"Why did you attack Earth's psychics?"

"_...ONE MOMENT...CHECKING..."_

Clark shakes his head. "See what I mean. This should be instantaneous," he tries to illustrate his point about it being a shell of itself.

"_...DATA RETRIEVED...EARTH'S PSYCHICS WERE TO BE USED AS BASIS OF COLU-AN RESURRECTION..."_

They all frown in confusion.

"Elaborate," Clark instructs.

"_...ORIGIN PLANET YON-COLU DESTROYED BY THE MULTITUDE…_

"_...COLLECTED KNOWLEDGE LED TO FORMULATION OF METHOD OF RECREATION..."_

"_...CALCULATIONS INDICATED PSYCHIC ENTITIES POSSESSED NECESSARY BASE ELEMENTS FOR TRANSFORMATION..."_

Jean feels ill. "You were going to turn us into your kind?"

"_...CORRECT..."_

Clark pulls his girlfriend into him and holds her around the waist. Honestly at this point he's stopped being shocked.

Charles shakes his head in disbelief at just how close he came to becoming whatever this is. "How is that even possible? You're a machine. We're biological."

This time it does not answer the Professor like it answered Jean. Odd.

Clark just guesses it doesn't have the answer due to damage. "My speculation would be that at its level of technology, biological and technological are not as different and succinct as you might think they are. I mean look at Forge," he uses as an example. Forge with his strange techno-organic right hand.

Charles concedes that is a good point. Forge's right hand was a mixture of biology and technology, being both and not quite either at the same time. Master that same threshold Forge exists on and just imagine how advanced you become.

"So I have a question, lad," Sean speaks up. "Are they all stuck like t'is forever? Ye know, in a bottle?"

Clark purses his lips. "I'm not sure about that. On one hand I was told the process is permanent but on the other, when I was facing off with the Collector, it talked about how if I could restore Kandor its inhabitants would treat me like a King as a reward."

"Which implies it isn't permanent," Charles concludes.

Clark shrugs. "All that I can say is that the Collector here doesn't know how to reverse it, I asked and I certainly don't. Even if I figure it out, what do I do then? All their homeworlds are destroyed. I don't think it would be wise to restore them all here on Earth."

"Hell no," Logan says, just imagining the reaction. Over 200 alien cities suddenly appearing...there would be chaos.

"Also some of them couldn't survive on Earth...probably," Clark guesses. "I mean it would be amazing that their biologies were all compatible with Earth's atmosphere."

Charles nods in concession. That must almost certainly be true.

"It's...lifetimes of work," Clark says, not able to quite express the scale of it all...and while, yes he will live many, many human lifetimes it's still a monumental task. "For right now my priority must be destroying Brainiac and preventing Zod's return. Zod must never get his hands on any of this, especially not Kandor."

"Why especially?" Rogue asks.

"Because if he frees them and they make him a King, he'll have a quarter of a million Kryptonian followers. All of whom will have the same powers I do."

"Christ, we'd be fucked!" Claire swears in realisation.

Charles has to pinch his nose at the stress headache that image is inducing. While he wouldn't phrase it like Claire did she is correct. Humanity wouldn't stand a chance against such a force.

"I think that this is not a problem for t'day," Banshee reckons. "Though I have t' ask what is this 'Multitude' thing that keeps getting mentioned?"

"Not sure," Clark answers. "All I could get out of the Collector was that it's some kind of...force that destroys planets...in a particular order. That's why the Collector has a list. Somehow it calculated the order and it is...was travelling from world to world ahead of the Multitude trying to preserve the inhabitants."

"So this 'force' is coming here?" Logan seeks to confirm.

"Yeah. Don't know when but yes. The Multitude is coming. Just another thing on my ever lengthening 'To Do' list," Clark jokes in morbid humour.

"**Our **list Clark," Charles emphasises. "We are in this together," he reminds the young man.

"Well, like the Collector here, I too have a list and right now Brainiac is at the top of it. I need to get back to figuring out a way to destroy it and each and every copy of itself it has made. The Multitude is going to have to wait until after that," Clark states his priorities.

"Uh, huh. Question, Clark. Ah thought Brainiac destroyed Krypton, not this Multitude?" Rogue queries an inconsistency in all this.

"Good point," Clark accepts. "Collector," the tall young man turns to it. "Why didn't the Multitude destroy Krypton?"

"_...IT WAS STOPPED..."_

"How?"

"_...UNKNOWN..."_

"_...UPON WITNESSING KRYPTON'S SURVIVAL COURSE REVERSAL WAS INITIATED TO DISCOVER IMPROBABLE CAUSE..."_

"_...UPON ARRIVAL FOUND ONLY PLANETARY DEBRIS..."_

"By the time you got back Zod and Brainiac had destroyed the planet," Clark assumes.

"At least we know it can be stopped," Banshee reflects the positive.

"Indeed," Charles says in agreement. "If it can be stopped once, it can be done so again."

"I'll have to look through the Kryptonian database at some point," Clark offers but not right now. Brainiac has to be stopped first.

"Yes but as you said Clark, priorities. I think that is enough for today," Charles decides. While the questions he has are endless that is also the problem. They're endless. Once he starts he won't stop for a long, long time but they learned the basics of what they needed to.

* * *

_Bart is running. He is running through this endless void. Multi-coloured lightning dominates the sky._

_He runs past roughly shaped holes through which he sees a guy dressed in a red hooded outfit, with a lightning bolt on his chest._

_A speedster like him. Using his powers to fight bad guys._

_It's kinda cool really._

_And he doesn't do it alone. The guy has his own team and everything. A Latino guy with funky shades and gauntlets and a hot chick...or is that a cool chick with white hair and skin and ice powers._

_But overshadowing everything...this continual dark presence plaguing this team's lives is...it's him! That man in yellow. A speedster too but different. Like an opposite...or...or…_

_"**Flash!"**_

_"Arh!" Bart screams as suddenly right in his path is that said man in yellow, his hand vibrating ready to strike and he does, his hand sinking deep into Bart's heart…_

"Arh!" Bart screams as he shoots awake in bed, golden lightning surging over his form...which is intense enough to set the bed sheets on fire. Luckily he has a room-mate who a, doesn't actually sleep barely at all any longer and b, possesses ice breath.

"Dude!" Bart says with suddenly chattering teeth. "Cold doesn't agree with me!" he complains. It was a weakness they had discovered during Bart's time at the mansion. Whatever strange energy fuels his powers doesn't like the cold.

"Sorry but it was this or evacuate the mansion," Clark offers as he sits down next to his friend and rubs some heat back into the younger teen with his hands. When he thinks Bart is sufficiently warmed up Clark starts, "Was this like that other weird dream you said you had?"

"Kinda," Bart offers.

"Bart that's two nights in a row. If you don't want to talk about it fine but just know I'm here as your friend if you need someone to listen."

"I don't know what any of it means," Bart offers half-heatedly.

"Try me," Clark openly offers to do anything he can for his friend.

Bart takes a moment to think it over...and for Bart a moment is like an eternity before he decides. "Alright. It goes like this..."

* * *

_Author's Note: So, yeah that's where the ship and the cities are. In Clark's new man cave. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Clark tries to help Bart discover the meaning of his dreams._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Are you sure you're not part vampire?" Jean asks in a complaint as she has blood sucked out of her arm.

A large blue furry chest vibrates in a deep rumble of laughter.

Jean was down in the infirmary this morning getting tests done after her admission yesterday to the Professor on the changes with her powers. Of course she is well aware why her blood is needed. She is studying to be a doctor after all.

"Look on the bright side Jean," Beast says, humour filled. "After this you get a nice long lie down while we do brain scans."

"Oh goodie," Jean dead-pans. More seriously, "You think there are any neural structural changes with this evolution?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. As we have mentioned before your powers are far greater than you can access. Perhaps simply the areas related to your powers have become more active," Beast proposes as he finishes drawing blood.

"I don't feel any different," she repeats what she said to the Professor yesterday.

"How do you feel...generally?" Beast asks her.

Jean shrugs. "Fine," she answers blandly...though that's not entirely true. She actually feels great. Than again that could just be because she's feeling very happy with her life at the minute. Namely Clark.

"When was the last time you were sick with anything? Cold? Flu?"

Jean shakes her head. "Seemed to have avoided all those things this year so I don't know. The previous winter probably."

Beast notes it mentally. "Well then we better move on. Sage will have got the scanner ready by now."

Jean stands up and follows Beast to her next round of tests.

* * *

"So what do ya think, Stretch?" Bart asks after he finishes his story. "Am I going crazy?"

"**Going** crazy?" Clark questions jokily.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny," Bart says, accepting he kinda walked into that one with a roll of his eyes.

"No, Bart, I don't think you're going crazy," Clark assures him, being more serious this time.

"Then what is it?" Bart asks, truly lost. "What am I dreaming about? Who is that guy in yellow?"

"When I was younger, when I didn't know there was anyone else out there with powers, before my parents showed me my ship and told me I was an alien I was desperate to find anyone like me so I spent hours and hours researching any story, myth, urban legend involving people with superhuman abilities."

"Yeah, I can get that," Bart says, feeling exactly the same way Clark did.

"One thing that popped up frequently were stories involving strange lightning and people who could move at superhuman speeds."

"What you getting at?"

"Bart, I don't think you're the first person to have gotten powers like yours from being struck with lightning."

Bart's eyes go wide as he remembers something. "Them," he whispers.

"Them?" Clark queries, his superhuman hearing picking up what others might not have heard.

Bart stands up and starts pacing.

Clark waits patiently.

Bart runs his hand through his hair. "Did you ever wonder how a guy with amnesia still knew his name?"

Clark continues to wait.

"Ok, so my first memory is being struck with lightning. My second memory, right after is...God, this is gonna sound crazy," Bart says, unable to believe he is about to even say this. He's never told anyone about this before.

"Bart, as I am oft to say, I'm an alien from another galaxy. There is very little I consider crazy."

"Good point," the blond teen accepts. "Well, ok, so I'm struck by lightning and then I'm running. I'm running through this endless void, you know like the one from the dream I just told ya about."

Clark nods, following.

"But I'm not alone. There are other...well not people exactly. More like shadows...silhouettes of people running beside me and all they say are names. I'm guessing their names. Jay Garrick, Wally West, Jesse Quick, Barry Allen, Bart Allen."

"The names on your fake IDs," Clark recalls.

"Yeah, well," Bart starts, clearly uncomfortable, now really quite embarrassed by just what sort of dick he was back then. "After I woke up, just lying in the middle of nowhere with no memory I just sorta picked one to use."

"Bart Allen. Any particular reason why you chose that one?" Clark wonders.

The blond teen shrugs. "Not really. I was tossing up between Barry and Bart in my head for awhile and just decided Barry would make me sound like an old guy," Bart says, making a face.

Clark laughs. That is so typically Bart.

"So what do you think?" Bart asks in all seriousness.

Clark takes a moment. "I can't explain everything...or really all that much but perhaps some of what your dreams are are real memories trying to break through. Maybe the couple you saw really are your parents."

"Ya think?" Bart asks, hope and longing in his voice. He has never remembered a thing of his life before the lightning strike and definitely not of his parents.

"It depends how much actually happened but lets assume that man in yellow in your house really did happen. That's so odd, especially from a time before mutants were revealed, that it might be something we can find."

"Really? Where do we start?" Bart asks, full of enthusiasm, eager to finally start and unpick his past.

"Newspaper articles, Police reports...but I would have to caution one thing," he says, needing to curb Bart's anticipation a bit. "Before mutants were revealed stuff like this would be covered up. The government wanted it kept out of the public eye so it might not easy to find."

"Yeah...but we can try, right?"

"Of course we can. I'll do everything I can to help you, Bart," Clark promises.

"Dude, stop, you'll make me teary eyed," Bart pleads, though in all seriousness it means a hell of a lot to him.

"Though before we start I have to say one thing. To me you look more like a Jesse Quick," the overgrown farmboy teases.

"Dude, she was clearly a girl!" the young speedster protests, all flustered.

Clark just laughs at the reaction. "Definitely a Jesse," he snorts out.

Bart can only, in the end, join in. It was kinda funny...as long as Jubilee never hears about this. Otherwise he'll never hear the end of it.

* * *

"You need to stop running away."

Kitty looks up from her position; sitting in her room by the window. For some reason looking out at the view helped her ignore..._her. _"What?" she asks the blond demon-sorceress who has entered her room.

"You need to stop running away from it," Illyana expands ever so slightly.

"Says the girl who ran away how many times now?" Kitty asks, actually being quite mean...for her

"I don't run away from my darkness. I don't deny it is there. I hide it because I know people find it uncomfortable to look at."

"That's a lie. You hide it away because you fear people will look at you like a monster," Kitty accuses, not sugar-coating anything. Not like her at all really. Whether that's the growing influence of the symbiote inside her or whether the brown haired girl's just had enough of being all nice and polite is a question.

"That's true," Illyana concedes.

"Then why did you just say all that?"

"Wanted to see what you would say."

Kitty just looks at her blond friend. "I literally don't understand a thing about you do I."

"No-one really does...except Clark maybe."

"And yet you let him go," Kitty reminds the Russian girl.

"For his own sake...and the future," Illyana explains with yes, some personal regret. Though better an alive Clark than what fate would await him should the two of them have stayed a couple.

"Why are you here, Yana?"

"I told you that your light is stronger than the darkness. You have to believe that and stop running away. You can't get rid of what is inside of you, Kitty. You need to learn how to control the darkness and channel it like I do. Yes, you are right there is a monster inside me but I try and use its power to do good...ugh," she makes a face. "Did I just sound like Clark?" she asks.

"Sorta," Kitty says with a half-smile threatening to form.

"Why did I ever listen to him?" Illyana grumbles, rubbing her face in irritation.

"He has that effect on you?" Kitty offers.

"I know and yet I don't know how he does it. It's really quite irritating."

Kitty does smile slightly at her annoyed looking friend. It was funny the expressions Illyana showed, almost only when she's talking about Clark. He really did have a profound effect on the demon-sorceress it seems. "Are you here to help me?" she queries.

Illyana flicks her hand in the direction of the door which shuts and locks and then she changes into Darkchylde, horns, tails and hoofs. "This...this is what I must live with every day," she starts and changing was to visually illustrate her point. "This is who I really am. A person with less than half their soul. You still have yours intact. No matter what you become when you are Carnage you still have your soul Kitty. You can never be as truly evil as I am."

Kitty has never, she thinks, really looked at Illyana when she is transformed like this. She takes a moment trying to take it in. "But I'm not me any longer, Yana. I'm...something else," she argues. When she was Carnage...she was no longer Katherine Anne Pryde.

"Do you think I am who I was?" Darkchylde asks rhetorically. "The Illyana Rasputin that went to Limbo is long since dead. All that remains of her is some memories. That does not mean I am not Illyana Rasputin. Just a different one."

Kitty's brow furrows. "Are you saying that I can still be Kitty Pryde but just different?"

"You can be whatever you choose to."

Kitty chuckles. "Now that's Clark," she points out where that statement comes from.

Darkchylde makes a disgusted face. "I swear I'll kill him just for that," she says in such a tone that it's hard to tell whether she's joking or not. "Though I do miss the sex," she laments.

"EW!" Kitty complains.

"What? Can you begin to imagine just how long and hard..."

"Oh my God! Please stop!" Kitty begs. "I'm going to need brain bleach!" she says with a shudder.

"I really don't understand why people are so uptight about speaking about normal biological urges."

"I think of Clark like a brother. I don't need to be thinking about him like...well that!"

"I grew up in Hell. You really think anyone there cares about that so called taboo?"

"We're not in Hell right now...or we might be considering this conversation," Kitty babbles, trying not to vomit. "Also you're way off topic," she tells her friend.

"I suppose," Darkchylde says with a lazy, uncaring shrug.

"So getting back on topic...can you help me?" Kitty wonders, hopeful.

"I can't remove the symbiote if that is what you mean. It's too intertwined with you. Can I help you prepare for the day it re-emerges fully...that is why I'm here."

"Why didn't you just say that?"

"I did."

Kitty replays the conversation in her head. "Oh, yeah, you did," she realises. "Sorry. I'm freaking out instead of listening," she apologises. "Also I can feel _her s_lithering about inside me. It's very distracting...and icky."

"I can feel my darkness slithering about inside me all the time. You get use to it," Darkchylde offers.

"I thought I was looking at your darkness...I'm confused," Kitty admits.

Darkchylde smirks. "Good."

Kitty rolls her eyes.

"Kitty!" Peter's voice echoes through the door as he knocks.

"Oh, that's Pete. He went to get some food," Kitty explains to Illyana as she walks to the door. "Yana," she says, pointing up and down her friend's figure.

Darkchylde huffs, closes her eyes and with a shake of her head just plain old Illyana comes back.

Kitty opens the door to see a worried looking Peter, food in hand. "Hey, honey!"

"Hey?" Peter replies, a bit confused about why the door was locked...and then he spots Illyana.

"Yana came to visit," Kitty explains.

"And now I'm going," Illyana states. "We'll start on what we were talking about later," she tells her friend as she exits.

Peter watches her go. "That girl gives me the creeps," he comments.

"She's not that bad," Kitty says in Illyana's defence.

"She sets off my spider-sense," Peter claims. Like all the time he's in her presence it's going off.

"Well she makes me feel better."

"In that case she's actually an angel in disguise."

Kitty laughs at that. "No, she's really not."

Well at least he got her to laugh. In Peter's head as long as Kitty can still laugh it's not all bad.

* * *

**Later that day...**

"Hey," Jean greets her boyfriend. Her tests had finished for now and her first thought had been to check up on her boyfriend. Boy, she has it bad. Anyway she found him down in the lower levels, in that room he uses for all his research and stuff.

"Hey," Clark greets her back and the two share a quick kiss. "How were the tests?" he inquires.

"Boring," Jean complains. "Just have to wait for Dr McCoy to finish analysing them...but in all honesty I don't think my powers seem any stronger than they were before," she gives her opinion.

"Well hopefully everything is ok," Clark expresses his hope.

"So what are you up to?" Jean asks, looking around at the scattered pieces of paper and at least 3 open laptops.

"Trying to help Bart," he answers.

"Hmm?" Jean says, half-distracted by trying to read something.

Clark summarises without revealing anything too personal. Basically Bart's been having dreams which Clark thinks are memories and are now trying to find anything that sounds like Bart's dream.

Jean loves how caring Clark is. Despite literally everything else her boyfriend has on his plate he will just drop it to help his friend. "You're a good friend," she tells him.

Clark shrugs. To him it's not a big deal. It's doing what is right.

"So where is Bart?" Jean wonders about why the younger teen isn't here.

"He needed a run," Clark explains lightly. Jean arches an eyebrow at him. "Bart can't be cooped up for long periods Jean. He needs to run just like I need to fly."

"How long will he be?"

"Who knows. Could be 5 minutes. Could be an hour."

"An hour? How far can he get in an hour?"

"However far he wants. I think he ended up in China once without even realising."

"How did he reach China?"

"He ran across the Pacific."

"He can run across water?"

"Of course he can. He's always been able to do that. How do you not know that?" Clark asks, perplexed.

"I don't know. I just didn't," Jean says, unable to really explain it. "Can you run across water?"

"Not when I first met him, I wasn't fast enough then."

"But now?"

"Oh sure I can do it. I don't like to do it. I get soaked. Easier to fly."

Well Jean is learning something new here. "So how are you getting on?" she asks.

"Bart can't really judge how old he was in his dream but it must definitely be from before he was struck by lightning 4 years ago so we're simply having to work backwards from than trying to find any report that vaguely matches his dream. Strange though."

"What is?"

"I did research like this when I was younger into anything odd and weird, trying to find people like me and I never came across anything like Bart described. It's possible the government just covered it up really well but still usually something comes up, like an urban legend."

Jean isn't sure what to say.

"Or I could have just missed it," Clark tags on. After all it's not like he is claiming to be some sort of research savant or anything.

Jean pats him on the arm. "I know you'll find something," she says being the supportive girlfriend. Clark turns back to his work while Jean peruses over what us lying around on the table. She picks up Clark's glasses which he has laid down and gets a silly idea. "So what do you think?"

Clark ends up having to look twice. Jean has placed his glasses on. Red starts to tinge his vision.

"So, what do you think?" Jean repeats her question with an innocent smile, actually unaware of the effect she is having on her boyfriend.

"What do I think?" Clark almost growls the question.

Jean is a little concerned when Clark advances towards her, like he's stalking her. Suddenly she is very aware of just how big, solid and strong he is. A hand brushes a strand of her red hair back, gently touching her cheek. Jean shivers at the physical contact because it allows that newly discovered ability of hers to feel Clark's mind, the immense presence of it, the power of his emotions to activate.

Of course the effect works the other way too. Clark can feel Jean's mind and emotions bouncing back. It's strange how it feels completely natural and right when part of him thinks he should be a little freaked out. "I think," he says, his voice deeply husky, sending a pleasant shiver through the beautiful redhead, "you look like the sexy geek girl of my dreams."

Jean wraps her arms around his neck, now totally onboard with what is happening. "That so?" she asks, her own voice dropping to a sexy whisper.

"Yes," he says, his lips now mere millimetres from hers.

"Show me," she says...and he does.

* * *

Some time later Jean is humming happily, smile on her face, smoothing down her clothes back into place. She'll have to remember to buy herself a pair of glasses if that is the sort of reaction she can illicit. Clark was almost feral and her legs still feel like jelly.

The two share a happy look with each other...which ends as soon as Bart returns, wind blowing about in his wake.

"Oh hey Red!" Bart greets her merrily, totally unaware of what he would have ran in on 5 minutes earlier.

"Hey Bart," Jean greets him, trying not to blush as it just occurs to her how close she and Clark were to being walked in on. Not like her at all to be so adventurous...yet it was also so good.

Clark method of avoiding blushing as he has the exact same thoughts as Jean is simply to bury his head in his work. "How was your run?" he asks, not looking up.

"Invigorating. Stopped in Mexico."

"Not another Burrito, Bart," Clark jokily complains.

"Hey, I need a high calorie diet," Bart says in his defence.

"Did you at least get one for Jubilee?" Jean inquires.

"Course I did. I'm not that neglectful," Bart says, sounding offended.

"Ok, sorry," Jean apologises.

"Don't be that sorry, Jean. He forgot one for me. His friend who is attempting to help solve his mysterious past," Clark points out.

"Oops," Bart says sheepishly. "Lo siento mi amigo."

"Wow, that was actually right for once," Clark says in shock at Bart not butchering Spanish like he usually does. "It's ok," he forgives Bart. "Next time though how about we go together, hmm?"

"No problemo!"

Clark shakes his head. He isn't sure whether that's Bart butchering Spanish again or just using the slang term.

"So how goes it?" the speedster asks, eager for some sort of breakthrough.

"Slowly," is all Clark can offer. "I haven't found anything yet that matches your dream."

"Maybe it was just a dream," Bart says with a forlorn expression. "I mean if google can't come up with anything then we're boned."

"Google isn't the be all and end all, Bart," Clark tries to pep up the younger teen. "Especially not if its been covered up. It just means having to look for info more off the grid."

"Do you remember anything about where you were when you were struck by lightning?" Jean queries. "You know, trying to narrow down where to look."

Bart thinks back hard. Golden lightning, blinding light… "There was a building of some sort nearby but that's all I got. I couldn't even describe it to you."

Jean's brow furrows. That isn't helpful.

Bart shrugs. "Sorry, señorita. Since I can't even really tell you if this is my real name, I'm not very useful when it comes to my past."

"None of which is your fault, Bart," Jean assures him, trying to pep him up a bit. It's unusual to see him so sad and lost. Could be the first time Jean has ever seen him like this. Seen him be this honest.

"I'm afraid this is just going to take awhile," Clark says apologetically.

Bart's face falls. Looks like no easy answers for him today.

* * *

_Author's Note: Look, the other Flashes get a mention. And I guess we'll find out soon whether Illyana is right or wrong about if Kitty can control her darkness. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The continuing attempt to aid Bart leads to discovering that the rabbit hole is a hell of a lot deeper than first appears._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A few days later and not all that much has changed around the mansion. Corben is still utterly inert while Dr Irons has left to set up the lab he needs to try and help the poor man. Lois was off back to Metropolis, just unable to sit around and do nothing while displaying her grief for all to see. Lois doesn't do that. She never likes displaying her pain so openly. Basically she needs to get back to work and distract herself.

The situation with Kitty and Carnage hadn't changed. The Professor silencing it was still holding up while it slowly regained strength within Kitty's body, making it all the harder to remove it which was an extremely difficult task to begin with.

And Bart was still having bad dreams, all involving the man in yellow.

And Clark was getting nowhere fast in solving it...which is weird because as he was saying to Jean the other day he knows all the other lightning related stories and possible speedsters from further back in history. Why wasn't there something, anything. A rumour. A myth. Something.

Of course on top of this Clark has his final exams to do. Graduation was coming up. Then there was Brainiac.

One of these days he swears he'll actually get a break. Maybe even a vacation.

But he wants to help his friend so whenever he can find free time he does research, even when he is suppose to be working on the school paper.

"I don't recall that being your assignment."

Clark glances to his side as the brown hair of Iris West swishes into view. "Side project," he responds as he tries to shut the windows down.

Iris bats his hand away from the mouse. "Hey, I was reading that," she complains.

"It's not work related, Iris. It's for a friend," Clark tries to keep Bart's privacy.

"Shh," Iris shushes him.

"Did you just shush me?!" Clark asks incredulously.

Iris shoves him aside and reopens the window. Why Clark is letting her he couldn't tell ya. Iris' brow furrows deep as she reads Clark's research. "I know that."

Clark looks at her intently. "Know what?"

"That," Iris points. "The guy in yellow, weird lightning stuff."

Clark looks at her even more intensely. "From where?"

"Home. Back in Central City. Just before my parents divorced and my mom and me moved here. That was the case my dad was working on."

"How do you know what he was working on?"

Iris shrugs. "From his notes. I've always been kinda nosey."

"Um, weren't you like 9 or something?" Clark recalls her vaguely mentioning her moving to Bayville before.

"Girls mature faster than boys," Iris says, sticking her tongue out at him.

Clark rolls his eyes and then proceeds to try and summarise this. "So your dad, the Detective right?"

"Yep."

"This was a case of his?"

"Definitely."

"Do you remember anything else?"

Iris stares off into the distance as she tries to remember. "Not really. Just that part really because it was so strange sounding."

"Then can you explain something to me?"

"What?"

"If this was a police investigation why can't I find a single mention of it anywhere?"

"What?" Iris laughs at the absurdity of that.

"Go ahead, look," Clark offers, getting up from his chair. "I guarantee you won't find a thing."

Never one to back down from a challenge Iris West slides into the chair and starts typing away furiously but like Clark nothing comes up. "That's impossible," she whispers. "I mean it was a murder...oh, right. Now I remember. It was a murder case."

Murder? Oh...dear. Does that mean Bart's parents are…? Crap. Clark won't jump to conclusions. Not until they have facts.

Iris taps hard on the keyboard in annoyance. "I don't understand. I clearly remember my dad's notes. Why is there no mention of this anywhere," she says, the frustration clearly visible.

"When was the last time you talked to your dad?" Clark asks.

The wannabe reporter blows air out from between her lips, almost snorting like a horse. "Probably the day mom and I left. Things between them by that point were very bad and she didn't want him to have anything to do with us any longer."

"And you were ok with this?" Clark queries gently.

Iris adopts a look of deep thoughtfulness. "I don't...I mean I guess I could have called him without mom knowing but...huh, I'm not sure why I haven't," she says in confusion.

The alien hero looks at his friend with some growing concern. Her responses are...off. "If you were to ask could he help with this?"

"Oh no, I can't phone him!" Iris snaps.

Ok, that does it. Clark shuts the computer off.

"What are you doing?" Iris asks, confused by his sudden intensity.

"Iris, get your coat. We're going to the mansion," Clark informs her.

"Why?" she asks in understandable confusion.

"Iris, did you just listen to yourself when it came to your dad?"

Iris looks at him in confusion.

"Clearly not," the curly haired young man mutters. "Ok, look. This case has been...vanished for lack of a better term. Don't you want to know the whole truth? Come to the mansion and I'll fill you in on everything I know and we can get to the bottom of it," he appeals to her natural journalistic curiosity.

It works. Iris West could never resist a good mystery to solve. "You're on Kent."

* * *

**At the Institute...**

Jubilee is trying her best to cheer her boyfriend up. For days he's been plagued by bad dreams and it's starting to take its toll. His usual happy demeanour is gone. He looks depressed...and sleep deprived.

She has never seen Bart like this. He's...lethargic. Which she thought was impossible. His speedster powers usually leave him so full of energy that he almost bounces around. He has a certain spark(pun intended) that never seems to leave him...especially when they kiss. Like literally. When their lips touch a static shock always runs through her. Kinda thrilling actually. Always makes her feel charged up...not that she is ever short of energy. Have you seen her powers but touching Bart always seems to give her a little extra kick.

Hmm, maybe their powers are compatible or something. She never considered that. Would make it proof positive that they're meant to be together.

Though that is a thought for later. Right now all Jubilee wants to do is focus her exuberant energy onto helping her boyfriend.

* * *

"You're certain of this?" the Professor is asking of the dark haired young man standing in his office.

Clark had left Iris to go over his research and was now informing the Institute head of his suspicions in regards to Iris. "It was like Kevin. It sounded like a conditioned response."

"Why would someone not want Ms West to talk to her own father?"

"I'm guessing; this whole thing with Bart and this other speedster in yellow. As far as I can tell, assuming Bart's dreams are his memories trying to break through, then someone has gone through a great deal of effort to erase whatever happened."

"Why?" Charles asks, unable to understand.

"That's the $64,000 question. At this point the only 2 options left I can see is to talk to Iris' father and since any online trace of this is seemingly gone, try and track down the paper records...assuming they haven't been erased as well."

"Ms West is originally from Central City, yes?"

Clark nods. "Yes," he confirms.

"So you would need to travel there."

Clark shrugs and throws his hands up in a 'what can ya do' sort of manner.

"Before you go off and do anything Clark, I would like to see Ms West and confirm whether or not she has been conditioned in some fashion."

Clark has no argument to make with that. "She's currently up in my room," he informs the Professor because his research room down in the lower levels contains Superman related stuff that is not for Iris' eyes.

* * *

"No, no, no...useless..." Iris mutters as she pushes bits of paper away and taps furiously on the keyboard of the computer she is working at. It is driving her nuts. None of this makes sense. She knows what she remembers...sorta remembers but can't find any trace of it anywhere.

"Perhaps you should take a break."

Iris spins round to find she has company. "Professor Xavier," she acknowledges him.

"Ms West. I take it it is not going well."

"It's all useless," she describes it as.

Charles steeples his fingers together. "I've been talking to Clark. He says that you have some information in regards to this mystery."

"If you mean something I read when I was like 9 then I guess so...or maybe I'm remembering wrong," she says with a sigh, rubbing her head.

"What do you remember?" Charles asks. "I assume you were at home."

"Hmm...yes. Just being nosey. My dad had left his work lying out on his desk at home."

"And it involved a man in yellow and lightning," Charles prompts her, seeing how much he can get her to remember without using his telepathy...though that may be needed. He'll have to see.

"It was a murder case. A woman had been killed and that was what her husband was saying about it."

"You didn't mention that to Clark," Charles believes because the young man never mentioned that to him.

"Didn't I?" Iris questions, puzzled. She rubs her head some more.

"Headache?" Charles queries at her actions.

"A bit," the teen reporter concedes.

Charles changes track a little bit. "Forgive me if this is too personal, Ms West but what caused your parents to divorce?"

Iris throws her hands up. "Hell if I know. I remember the arguments and screaming matches but I think I tried to tune the details out."

"That's understandable," Charles says in sympathetic understanding. It would make sense that she doesn't want to dwell on it. "And then one day she and you left Central City completely?"

"I guess mom just wanted to get far, far away from dad."

"And your father?"

"What about him?"

"Did you not miss him...or was he, and forgive me here if I offend, not a good father?"

"Dad? He was alright I guess. Work kept him busy so he wasn't around a lot."

"And this case? Did that keep him busy?"

"I suppose it did," she says, not really answering.

"Did they ever charge anyone? Or did you leave before then?"

Iris snaps upright. "Um...geez, did they?" she asks.

"Well I'm making a supposition on you being 'nosey' as you said that you kept an interest in it. Perhaps you didn't."

"No I did...didn't I?" she asks herself, conflicted as if she can't trust her own memories.

"Did you never ask you father about it?"

"Oh no, I can't talk to him!" she snaps.

Charles looks at her closely. Clark's right. That is a conditioned response. What is going on? Why does someone not want Ms West talking to her own father. "Ms West, I think you should accompany me to my office. We need to talk," he says, his tone grave with the seriousness of this situation.

Iris blinks and looks at the man. Why does she have this feeling that she's not going to like this?

* * *

"So what have ya been up to recently, Slim?"

Behind his red glasses Scott frowns. He was just getting back to the mansion and found Logan lazily leaning against a pillar, smoking a cigar. The feral Canadian had been banned years ago from smoking inside. "Not much," the young man says in reply. "Not like you to care," he has to mention.

"I don't."

"Then why are you asking?" Scott wonders, perplexed.

"Bored," is the one word answer.

Scott rolls his eyes and shakes his head before walking into the mansion. As he passes Logan says something else, "Next time you spend the day with Frosty try showering afterwards."

Scott freezes. Idiot, idiot, idiot! He forgot all about Logan's bloodhound nose. He looks at the older man who simply remains where he was, puffing away on his cigar. After several awkward moments where Scott tries to formulate a response he gives up and hurriedly walks inside.

Logan remains leaning against the pillar looking for all the world like he doesn't give a damn but really all he can think is, "Damn kids will be the death of me."

* * *

Iris was right. She didn't like it. The idea her mind has been conditioned, seemingly to keep her away from her own father. "Why?" is the question.

"I can't be certain but one thing I have learned these last few years is that a conflagration of events is rarely coincidence," Charles responds.

Iris' brow furrows. "Clark's investigation. The man in yellow," she guesses.

"Someone has gone to a lot of effort, as far as we can tell so far, to erase this man and whatever occurred with Bart's, we're assuming, family."

"Which brings us back to why."

"Indeed, Ms West. There are many unanswered questions. Too many."

"And my father might have the answers. How can I help when all I want to do is not talk to him?"

"The fact you even realise this is the case indicates that the conditioning is not complete...or has deteriorated with the passage of time."

"Don't you know, what with the..." Iris sort of points her finger at her head in a twirling motion.

"I don't read minds without permission, Ms West," Charles replies. "Also it would require a very deep scan. Conditioning is usually implanted deep within the psyche. It would be very intrusive. It's not something to be done lightly."

"Yet how can we get answers unless you have a look," Iris points out.

"This decision must not be rushed. I...request you go away and think about it first. It would also be for my benefit. I must mentally prepare before performing such a procedure."

"Ok," Iris agrees with a nod. Though honestly in her heart of hearts she believes she has already made her mind up. After all she's a reporter and a reporter's job is to get to the truth.

* * *

**District X...**

Chloe wanders through the mutant district of Bayville. They're still clearing up after the Collector's assault. It wasn't her first trip down here. In fact she had come here as soon as she could get away from the mansion...and when she felt she could leave Lois for a few hours.

But with her cousin now away back to Metropolis Chloe now has much more free time to refocus her attention on her latest project. This place.

Though the word 'project' makes it sound so clinical.

Ever since her last trip to Smallville and discovering how the mutant kids had been barred from attending school, Chloe has found her main bugbear has been trying to find a way to help her kind.

Yes, **her **kind.

It may have taken her awhile but she has finally accepted what she is...though she'd be lying if she didn't admit there are still times she finds her appearance...difficult.

But as Lois might say she should just put her big boy pants on and deal with it.

Then again in District X no-one really gives her much of a second look. Apart from the mansion it's the one place she fits in. Right here and now she was looking for her friend; Cecily. Chloe had come to like the girl...and try and figure out the puzzle that is the liquid metallic mutant. Chloe reaches an apartment block...and sighs. What a dump. The whole district is in reality. No-one cares about it. Even more so when it's filled with mutants.

Ok, that's not entirely true. The Professor cares and uses his charities to help. Mr Kent cares but his power is limited by the town council which is full of people who don't care. Chloe knows Mr Kent would love to do more than he is. It's just that after the Collector ripped the town out the ground, this district is now even further down the list of priorities of things that need fixed.

Chloe walks up the steps, through the front door and up 2 flights of stairs before knocking in the door of the apartment she is seeking. "Cecily, it's Chloe!" she shouts.

A few seconds later the door is being opened. "Chloe!" Cecily greets her cheerfully, a huge grin on her face.

"Hey, Cess. How are ya?" Chloe asks.

"Me? I'm good, like always!"

Dreadful liar, still...and Chloe thinks she knows why it is Cess lies. "Can I come in, Cess?"

"What? Oh, yes, yes! Come in!" she waves the golden skinned girl inside. "You must think I'm a total ditzy cheerleader," she gripes at herself for just leaving Chloe standing there.

"You are a total ditzy cheerleader. I've seen the pictures," Chloe jokes.

"Yeah," Cess says, her face falling as she thinks back on what she use to be and what happened to her.

"So how are things around here?"

"Oh same old, same old. Easier without the robots trying to capture us all," Cess tries to make light of it all. That was not fun...especially when they figured out her vulnerability to electrical current. She involuntarily shudders at the memory of the pain as electricity was shoved through her body over and over until she was reduced to a quivering puddle of silver goop.

"So what do you want to do today?" Chloe asks because she has no specific idea.

Cessily shrugs. "I don't know. What do you want to do today?"

"Cess, please don't start that 'What do you want to do today?' ping-pong," Chloe begs.

"But...what do you want to do today?" she asks with a huge cheesy grin.

Chloe rolls her eyes and mutters, "She's almost as bad as Clark." Louder she says, "Look why don't we just go out and see what springs to mind," she offers as a suggestion.

"Ok!" Cess says with too much enthusiasm but then again secretly she'll admit Chloe is her only friend.

The two depart and as they go down the stairs almost get run over by a couple of kids playing.

"New arrivals?" Chloe asks, having not seen them on her previous visits.

"There's always new arrivals," Cess says rather blandly as the two exit the building.

"Parents kick them out?"

"No, the whole family was hounded out by their neighbours from what I hear."

Chloe shakes her head. This world, sometimes you just despair. "Should be in school," she just has to mention her original bugbear from Smallville.

"Which school? Bayville High might deal with their academic needs but not how to deal with their powers and you know not everyone wants to be an X-Man so the Institute is a bad fit there. Need a 3rd option or something."

Chloe looks at Cessily closely.

"What? Is something stuck in my face again?" she asks because that is so embarrassing. Damn liquid metal body.

"Cess, I take back calling you ditzy. You're a genius," Chloe calls her.

"I am? For what?"

"You've just given me an idea about what to do."

Cess is utterly lost and it shows on her face. "What idea?" she asks.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

Clark finds himself in the Professor's office listening as it is explained to him the situation with Iris who, as it turns out, hadn't taken very long to decide she wanted to know the truth so the Professor looked inside her head and with her permission is summarising what he found to Clark.

"While I did not find who was responsible, it is without questioning there is conditioning in Ms West's mind...or rather to be utterly precise, the conditioning present has begun to deteriorate with the passage of time."

"How much time?"

"I cannot say exactly but my guess is roughly around when Ms West's parents were divorcing."

"Is their splitting up also part of this?" Clark wonders.

"Excellent question, Clark," Charles praises him. "I cannot say but it is not an unreasonable guess. Though it may have been an unintentional side-effect. I'm afraid facts are lacking at the moment."

"Tell me about it," Clark grumbles.

"Bottom line is that, as you have said, it seems someone has gone through an awful lot of effort to cover up the truth over this man in yellow."

"We cannot find answers here, Professor. We need to go to Central City. Meet Iris' dad," Clark believes.

"I am inclined to agree with you, Clark...and I am glad you said we. Ms West already guessed that that would have to be the next step and expressed her desire to come."

"Well Bart will have to come. This is about discovering his past after all."

"And I shall be accompanying you as well," Charles declares. "If there has been mental tampering involving the West family you will need me as well."

Clark has nothing to argue with here. "So when shall we leave?"

"As soon as practical will be best. Ms West has already left to pick up some belongings since we don't know how long this will take. I see no reason not to leave as soon as she returns."

Clark nods along. "I'll let Bart know so he can pack...and so should I."

* * *

Later down in the hangar Clark is saying goodbye to his significant other before he boards the x-copter; the Velocity.

"Sure you don't want to come along?" he asks his beautiful red-headed girlfriend.

"You have the Professor. You'll be fine. You don't need me along," Jean replies.

"I wouldn't say that but I guess...I'll just miss you."

Jean smiles widely and gives him a kiss. "That's sweet," she reflects genuinely. "But this isn't a date thing. This is about helping Bart. You do that and we'll spend time together when you get back."

"Promise?" he asks with an adorable hang-dog expression.

"Promise," Jean assures him and gives him another kiss.

"Oh my god! Get a room!" a loud voice proclaims.

Clark and Jean looks at the source of the voice with puzzlement. "Jubilee?" they ask together and then give each other funny looks for saying that at the same time.

"Yes, Jubilee," the Chinese-American girl mocks the two of them.

Behind Jubilee is a sheepish looking Bart. "She insisted," the speedster explains.

"Of course I did. My boyfriend is having nightmares related to his mysterious past and I'm going to help him sort it out," she proclaims with absolute conviction. Why is this even a question? She storms past them in a huff and goes onboard the Velocity.

"Yep, I'm definitely staying," Jean says, even more sure than before about her decision. "Good luck," she tells her boyfriend with a snarky grin before she departs.

"Coward!" Clark playfully shouts after her.

"Bite me!" Jean responds in a slightly immature response. Something that has been creeping into her personality more and more the longer she dates Clark.

With the Professor and Iris already aboard Clark and Bart zip up the ramp and with that the group departs. Destination; Central City.

* * *

_Author's Note: Hmm, now what is going on? Why is Bart's past being covered up and more relevantly by whom? Questions, questions. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Journey to Central City._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**Central City...**

Or more accurately flying above the Missouri city located on the banks of the Mississippi. Iris West looks down at the city of her birth for the first time in many, many years. Part of her really didn't want to be here...and then she thinks that may be this conditioning she has had inflicted upon her.

God dammit. What is it that made someone do that? What is it that this mysterious person behind this wants hidden?

The Professor flies the Velocity to a private airfield he managed to get use of at extremely short notice. He'll try and not think about how much that cost him but money is less important than the well-being of his students and finding the truth is important for Bart.

"Anything look familiar?" Jubilee asks her boyfriend at the sight of the city below.

Does it? A question Bart is asking himself. Does anything look familiar? Feel familiar? "Not at the minute. Maybe when we're in town..." he says hopefully.

Jubilee kisses his cheek to show that she's here for him.

The helicopter soon lands and at the gate to the airfield a hired car is waiting for the group. They get in and head into the city. More specifically they head for Iris' dad's place of employment.

* * *

**Central City Police Department...**

Many people think Joseph West has become a bit too obsessive with his job. That he has no life beyond the walls of this building.

Those people are basically right but in his defence throwing himself into his job is the only thing that kept him sane after his divorce from his wife, that also ended with her taking his daughter away from him.

God, he doubts he would even recognise her now if she was standing right in front of him.

"Hello dad."

Joe spins round in his chair, his eyes widening at the sight of the brown-haired teenager standing in front of him. "I-Iris?"

Iris smiles shyly, tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear. This feels so weird being here. Mostly wrong as if some voice in her head is telling her not to be here but she is ignoring it. She looks her father up and down. He looks...ok she guesses.

"How did you get in here?" he asks.

Iris laughs at the absurdity of that question. "It's been the best part of a decade and that's your first question?"

God she's right. What is wrong with him? "Is it really you?"

Iris nods. "Yeah. It's me," she confirms.

Joe is up off his chair and wrapping his arms around his baby girl before he even realises he's doing it.

Iris releases a shuddering breath at the physical contact with her father after all this time. She rests her head on his shoulder but only for a moment. "Can we talk...outside?" she asks him.

That goes without question because Joe obviously wants to know why she is here. He grabs his coat and father and daughter depart.

What Joe doesn't notice, that he really should have, is that not a single person, all cops remember, pay the pair the slightest bit of attention.

* * *

"So how's your mother?" Joe asks as father and daughter walk through a nearby park.

"Fine, I guess," Iris says, unsure what else to say really.

"Does she know you're here?"

"Dad, please I'm 16, not 6," Iris argues. "She does not need to know where I am every second of the day. Besides I didn't come alone. I came with friends."

That seems to placate Joe a little. "Why are you here, Iris?"

Iris takes a moment to consider how to phrase this. "It actually involves an old case of yours, from several years ago." She stops walking and Joe does as well. "Do you remember some weird case involving a man in yellow and lightning?"

"The Allen case?"

"Allen," Iris breathes. Bart Allen. Can't be a coincidence. "You remember it?"

"Of course I remember it, Iris. I've not gone senile yet."

"Well nobody else seems to. There are no records, newspaper reports, nothing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Just that. A friend may have found a...lead," she chooses to phrase it as right now, "but when I was trying to help him with it we found nothing. Not even on the internet. It's like someone erased it but me, I remembered. I remembered reading your notes from when I was 9 so the obvious answer was to come see you," she tells him, not quite everything. She means how is she going to tell him that the whole divorce and separation of their family might have been part of this as well.

Answer is that for right now she's not gonna tell him anything. Not until they have some real facts which they utterly lack at the moment.

Joe doesn't understand how what his daughter is saying is possible. How can it have been erased? He says so to her.

"When was the last time you looked at it?" Iris asks him.

"I don't know. Several years ago probably. It's a closed case."

"Closed?" Iris queries.

Joe nods. "Yes."

"Closed, why?"

"Henry Allen was convicted of murdering his wife. His only defence had been his bizarre claim about a man in yellow and weird lightning storms."

"They thought him insane didn't they?"

"At first but he passed psychological assessment. Enough to stand trial."

"Why was he convicted?"

"Because there was no evidence of another person in the house. Henry Allen was found next to his dead wife who had been stabbed through the heart. It was the only conclusion possible that he killed her."

"Did he have a son?"

"Yes. Bartholomew Henry Allen."

"Was he a witness at the trial?"

"He gave the same story as his father but it was dismissed as a defence mechanism."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it was the psychiatrists' opinion that the boy, unable to cope with the trauma of witnessing his father killing his mother, made up this story or was force fed it by his father."

"Did you believe any of it?" Iris wonders.

Joe sighs and the two stop. "I do think it is more complicated than the simple case the prosecution laid out...but thinking and proving are two different things Iris," he points out.

"And the son? What happened to him?"

"Went into care and then the foster system until a few years ago."

"Why? What happened a few years ago?"

"He disappeared one night. He went out during a thunder storm and never returned to his foster home. He's been missing ever since."

"I assume a Missing Persons report was filed?"

"Last time I checked."

"Then maybe you should check again because I'm pretty certain Clark or I would have spotted that."

"Are you saying, like the murder case, it's gone?"

Iris shrugs. "All I can say is that I never spotted it."

"And Clark is this friend you mentioned here with you I'm assuming?"

"Don't go all over-protective dad. He's only a friend. He has a girlfriend. In fact I'm his boss on the school paper."

"So what is it you want from me, Iris?"

"Your help," Iris says like it should be obvious. "Your memory is all we have for this case now since it seems to have been erased."

Joe looks at his daughter's earnest expression. God, he's missed that. Ever since she was a kid she had this insatiable need to stick her nose into things and get to the facts. He can also never say no to that look either. "I'll help you, Iris."

Iris breaks out into a happy grin. "Great. That being the case I think I better introduce you to my friends then," she says and then looks to her left.

Joe follows her gaze and finds a group of young people along with a bald man in a wheelchair, standing there as if they had been there the whole time. What is going on?

* * *

**New York...**

Emma had to admit that what Brainiac was doing was very, very impressive as she examines the lab...that had almost gotten totally wrecked during the Collector's attack but Brainiac had been very quick to repair it all and continue his work.

"How is it progressing?" she asks one of the several copies of her partner in the room.

"On schedule."

Emma peers a little closer as the genetic serum Brainiac is trying to create. "So is this what will alter someone to be fit to be Zod's vessel?"

"It will be when completed. This is its initial stage. Due to the limitations of your technology the process will take weeks to complete. What of your end? Have you completed the preparations for the Honduras Operation?"

"Yes, yes. Everything is as you specified," Emma assures him...it.

"Excellent."

"I'm curious, who are you going to choose precisely to be the vessel?"

"A final decision has yet to be made but assessments are ongoing."

"Extremely vague reply," Emma intones.

"The physical characteristics of the vessel are irrelevant. Only that it is strong enough to contain Zod is relevant. How the vessel is to be chosen is not part of our arrangement."

Emma takes a moment to think on it and silently concedes that is probably correct. Doesn't mean she's happy on being out the loop. After all look what being 'out the loop' got her in regards to the Hellfire Club. Exiled. Kicked out. Selene in charge. Turns her stomach just thinking about it. Though if Brainiac delivers what it promised...then Emma will be getting the last laugh as it pertains to Selene. She looks forward to that day with great anticipation. She checks her watch. She only had time for a quick inspection. She has an appointment at the Spa and there is no force on this planet or any other that will have her miss her weekly pampering.

* * *

**Central City...**

Joe knew he was staring but he couldn't help it. When the introductions reached the blond haired teenager and he heard the name 'Bart Allen'...Joe could see it now. He remembers that 9 year old kid, utterly and completely broken by his mother's death. That haunted look was no longer in this boy's eyes but he could see this was definitely the same person who disappeared 4 years ago.

"Detective West," the Professor addresses him. "We are here for one simple reason. To discover Bart's forgotten past."

"Forgotten?"

"Can't remember a thing," Bart says with a shrug, trying not to show how much that actually bothers him. Jubilee takes his hand in hers and gives it a squeeze.

"When Bart 'disappeared' from your point of view it was because he was struck by lightning and suffered complete amnesia. Clark, here, bumped into him, about a year and a half ago in Metropolis," Charles briefly summarises the story.

Joe's eyebrows rise. Metropolis is quite a distance from here.

"Bart was living rough, resorting to petty crime to get by," the Professor is honest about it without telling the whole truth, though he suspects Detective West will ask the obvious question shortly.

Bart winces slightly. Not his greatest memories.

"Clark, deciding to help someone in need, invited Bart to come stay at the mansion, which he accepted."

"Who turns down 3 square meals," Bart says nonchalantly.

"So you remember nothing?" Joe asks the young man.

"Not a thing before the lightning strike...apart from some recent dreams."

"Which is what triggered our journey here," the Professor says. "Bart began to dream about events involving a man in yellow and possibly his parents. Clark was trying to aid him get to the bottom of it when Ms West spotted what Clark was working on and recalled some details about a case you were working on several years ago."

"The one that has seemingly been erased."

"Yes. Curious that," the Professor says in a tone that shows it slightly worries him the way it has been done. He still has to raise the issue of Iris' conditioning and the fact it is possible the good Detective has endured the same. He is going to have to be delicate how he handles that. "To be blunt Detective, we need your help. Our investigation cannot proceed without further information."

"I told Iris I would help and I keep my word. However, Bart, you will not like what I have to say. Are you sure you want to hear about this?"

"Yeah...well, I sorta figured that it might not be pleasant but let me tell ya, it's no fun having amnesia. I feel like half a person and I've done the wandering aimlessly with no idea where I'm heading shtick and that's not much fun either. Well it had it highlights..."

"Bart," Clark interrupts before his friend goes off on one of his tangents which he is prone to do.

"Right," Bart says. "So yeah, lay it on me Chief. I need to know."

* * *

Later Bart wonders if he really did want to know.

No. He did.

He just doesn't like it.

Detective West told him what he knew of the story. Of his mother's murder...and Bart is fairly sure now that it is him. Bartholomew Henry Allen...who names their kid 'Bartholomew' by the way?

Not that he's speaking ill of his dead mother or anything just so he's clear.

As Detective West spoke, Bart's dream actually began to clarify until he was certain that they are real and proper memories.

He remembers.

He remembers waking up and walking down the stairs. He remembers the lightning storm in the foyer. He remembers the man in yellow...and then he remembers someone else grabbing him and before he knew it he was standing in a street far away from his home.

Admittedly that is the only part of his memory that is any clearer. He can't remember anything else of his life from before the lightning strike. Not how he got home...or his father's trial.

His father, Henry Allen is still alive. He's in prison, convicted of his mother's murder but it wasn't him was it?

Bart's sure of that.

Clark, Iris and the Professor were reviewing the case files. Detective West, as it turns out, has what may be the only existing copy left of them. That sure was weird.

While part of Bart thinks he should help he feels like his brain is too muddled and that he needs to clear it so he is taking a walk through the city with Jubilee keeping him company.

As for Jubilee she was concerned for her boyfriend. Ever since they arrived in Central City there has seemed to be a greater and greater weight Bart is carrying but then again what can you expect?

This place seems like it is Bart's missing origin story...and geez she's been hanging around Paige far too long if she is coming up with terms like that.

Yet on the other hand there is something...off about this city. She hasn't said anything but there is just this almost imperceptible feeling of wrongness. She can't explain it. She can't explain what is off or wrong. It is just a feeling.

Because otherwise if you look around at the city it is just that. A normal city. People going around their business. Working, shopping or whatever. Houses, office buildings, skyscrapers, shops...ooh is that a coffee shop?

CC Jitters.

It only takes a moment before Jubilee is dragging Bart towards it.

"It seriously can't be healthy to be this addicted to coffee at your age, Jubes," Bart complains.

"Pft, I'm not addicted," the Chinese-American girl denies the accusation. "Now if you want to see an addiction watch Chloe. I'm sure that girl lives solely on coffee. Besides, you need to eat. You haven't had anything in hours," she points out. "Unless you want to pass out again," she reminds him of what happens when he doesn't eat. Bart's metabolism is so high he practically needs to eat almost constantly. Something like 10,000 calories a day if she is remembering correctly and when he doesn't eat enough...well he's actually passed out at least three times since she's known him.

Now she mentions it Bart is hungry...but when isn't he. Maybe a snack will help him clear his mind and then he'll go back and help to unravel his past.

* * *

**West Residence...**

In all honesty Charles can see why Henry Allen was convicted of the murder of his wife, Nora. The only alternative did sound, prior to the reveal of mutants and other super-powered beings, crazy to use a word Charles dislikes.

Take the part away of the man in yellow and the only people present in the house were Nora, Henry and Bartholomew Allen.

And yes Bartholomew was almost certainly Bart who had understandably needed some air. The first memories he has recovered of his pre-lightning strike life are that of his own mother's murder. What is there to say?

Back to the case that lack of evidence of anyone else in the house also makes any attempt to overturn the conviction difficult to say the least and that does not even include the clear attempt to bury this case as much as is possible.

Which raises another issue. The mental tampering of Iris and whether the same thing happened to Detective West. Charles had been contemplating how exactly to bring this issue to the Detective.

"Arh! This is hopeless," Iris complains as she leans back in her chair, throwing her arms up in frustration. She can't see anyway of clearing Henry Allen. "Whoever is behind the burial of this case has done their job well," she comments.

"She has a point," Clark says in agreement. "And it's not just the online erasure. In the years after Henry Allen was imprisoned there were a series of convenient fires that burned physical copies of the files," he reports what he has discovered in the last few hours. "If Detective West hadn't kept a copy we'd have nothing," he point out.

"The newspaper archives were burned down too," Iris points out what else they have discovered in the last few hours. "Well except for the ones dad kept," she says as she raises one up. "Good work dad," he congratulates him with a thumbs-up.

"Well thank you Iris. I'm glad doing my job meets with your approval," Joe drawls sarcastically.

It's then Clark's super sharp eyes spot something and grabs the paper off Iris and peers real close at a picture on the front page.

"Clark?" Charles queries at his behaviour.

Clark lays the paper down and grabs a magnifying glass. "I know who is responsible for the cover-up," he states strangely. "Look, there," he says holding the magnifier over the picture. It's of Henry Allen arriving at his trial.

"Where?" Iris asks.

"In the crowd. The woman at the back right," Clark elaborates.

All present peer in.

"It's Patricia," Clark identifies the person.

"It is Patricia," Charles confirms as he suddenly sees her.

"Patricia who?" Joe asks.

"Swann. Patricia Swann," Clark answers.

"Of the Swann Foundation? As in Virgil Swann?"

"His daughter," Charles replies. "Only she's not what she appears. She's a mutant. An extremely powerful one who has the ability to transcend time. She uses this ability to manipulate events to her own design."

"But usually to manipulate them in regards to a...friend of ours," Clark says vaguely. The friend being himself of course since Patricia has made it her business to protect him and ensure he fulfils his 'Destiny' as she sees it. Clark hates that flippin word so, so much. "Why would she manipulate events around Bart though?" he asks, puzzled, unable to figure it out.

"I do not know," Charles says, as equally puzzled by this as Clark is.

Iris asks a question. "Does this mean she is the one who messed with my head?"

"What?" Joe asks at his daughter's question. What did she say?

Charles sighs. "I was looking for the right words to raise this. However, that moment has passed."

Iris shoots the Professor an apologetic look. "Sorry," she says sheepishly.

"Detective West," Charles addresses him. "There is something you need to know..."

* * *

Back with the amnesic speedster and his girlfriend, after their short break they had resumed their walk around the city. Jubilee thinks Bart is trying to see if anything will stir a memory but so far; nope, nadda, nothing.

Maybe it's time to go back. A suggestion she makes. Bart just nods rather than says anything.

It is only a few minutes later that Bart stops. Jubilee looks at him and sees her boyfriend standing stock still, his gaze a million miles away.

"Bart?" she queries gently, her hand touching his shoulder. No response. Jubilee is starting to get concerned. "Bart. Talk to me," she pleads, her hand now going to his cheek...which seems to have the desired effect as his eyes blink and he gazes at her. Though his mind still appears to be elsewhere.

"It was here," he says, his voice distant.

"What was here?" Jubilee asks, not understanding.

"I was standing here. That's the building," he says, pointing at it.

Jubilee looks at where he is pointing before an inkling starts to drift into her mind. "Do you mean when you were struck by lightning? You were here?"

Bart nods. He was here. He's sure of it. "It was dark. Night time. There was a lightning storm and this sorta weird glow all around me and then I was struck," he remembers.

Well, finally, they were getting somewhere. They had found the place where Bart's life as a speedster had begun. Jubilee then makes a note of what building it was. Curious coincidence because it's one the X-Men have a sort of relationship with. Well the company that runs the building anyway.

Star Labs.

* * *

_Author's Note: So further and further down the rabbit hole we go with Bart's past. And lookie here, Clark's little self-appointed Guardian Angel, Patricia is involved. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Journey to Central City part 2_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**West Residence...**

"How's your dad?" Clark asks Iris after the Professor had explained to the man the present theory that he and his family may well have been the victim of mental manipulation.

"Gone for a walk to cool off," Iris replies. Yep, he's pissed. Then again so is she. Especially when all of this may have been the cause of her parents' marriage imploding.

"Lot of that going around," Clark remarks, referring to Bart.

"Can I ask a question?"

"Sure."

"How did you spot Patricia Swann in that picture? I could barely notice her even after you pointed it out."

Clark shrugs and tries to play it off lightly. "Despite the glasses I actually have a good eye for small details."

Iris eyes him, as if suspicious. Luckily he is saved by Bart and Jubilee returning.

The Professor can instantly sense, from Jubilee at least, that something has occurred. "Is something the matter?" he asks in his most caring tone of voice.

The two teens pause as if thinking what to say. It's Jubilee that eventually explains about Bart's sudden revelation of being in front of Star Labs when he was struck by lightning.

"I don't get it," Iris says, perplexed. "What's so significant about Star Labs?"

"Patricia owns it," Clark answers.

"And you don't think it's all a coincidence," Iris realises.

"Considering the efforts she has clearly made in regards to this whole situation involving Bart, his family and the man in yellow, I doubt it," Charles says.

"What?" Bart asks, his stupor being broken by talk about the man in yellow. "What about the man in yellow?"

Charles explains what they discovered while the two teens were out. Of Patricia's appearance in the background of the picture of Henry Allen's trial.

Bart looks at the picture, particularly the man at the centre of it and asks the question no-one has actually come out and said yet. "He's my dad, isn't he?"

"Most likely, yes," Charles says softly, confirming the most likely truth as they believe it is.

"Can...Can I see him? Go visit him?" Bart wonders.

"We would need to talk to Detective West about that when he returns and even then it would take some time. Perhaps, in the meantime, we need to take a closer look at Star Labs," Charles thinks, looking over at Clark.

Clark internally sighs. Anything involving Patricia is likely to be migraine inducing. Nonetheless, first things first is to see what they can learn about it from here before they probably go there in person.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

"This is more Charles' area than mine, Chloe," Ororo is saying despite the fact she is sitting behind the Professor's desk, being she is in charge while Charles is in Central City.

"I know," Chloe replies from her position sitting on the opposite side of the desk. "But I just wanted...needed to bounce the idea off someone while it was fresh in my head...and no, Bobby doesn't count."

Ororo shakes her head slightly with a smile. Chloe and Bobby were a strange couple but they seemed to be making it work at the moment. "So let me get this straight," she starts over to summarise. "You believe there needs to be a brand new school, a sort of in-between of the Institute and Bayville High?"

"Kinda...or...or a model for what the public school system should become as mutants get more common. I mean you can't teach every mutant on Earth how to control their powers."

"Nor do I want to attempt to," Ororo jests before she takes a moment to let Chloe's idea sink in. "Your idea is not without merit," she accepts. Chloe had made a few good arguments about it.

"Well I can't take all the credit. It was Cess' words that made the lightbulb go off."

"That's the girl composed of liquid metal, yes?"

Chloe nods. "Yeah."

Ororo remembers her. Fascinating set of powers, even for someone, like her, who is not a scientist by trade but back to the business at hand. "This will all have to be discussed with Charles because I can already think of a few contributions we'll all have to make, such as training of the staff on how to deal with mutant students."

"Oh...good point. Never thought of that," Chloe concedes.

"That's why you came to me though. To 'bounce' ideas off," Ororo says with a light smile.

Chloe shrugs but she is happy that a start has been made. It feels like that unknown itch she has had, about a focus for her life, it just might have started to be scratched.

* * *

**Central City...**

The gang have now come to stand outside Star Labs.

"So Clark," the Professor begins, "why don't you fill us in again on what you have found," he requests they have a refresher before entering the building.

"This particular branch of Star Labs is run by a Dr Harrison Wells, a renowned particle physicist. For the last several years its primary focus has been the building of a new generation particle accelerator, smaller than any current existing facility yet more powerful at the same time. I could list the various other research areas but in all honesty they seem to do a little bit of almost everything. I can also say I have found several occurrences of Patricia visiting here lately, more than she tends to visit any other Swann Foundation Facility."

"I thought it was Swann Communications," Detective West raises a query over the name.

"It was until Virgil Swann refounded the company a couple of years back," Clark replies.

"Why would he do that?"

Ooh, awkward. He did it for Clark.

"Virgil had his reasons, chiefly wishing to leave a legacy to aid mankind be better," Charles answers for his student.

"So there's something about this facility that Patricia deems important," Iris puts forward the supposition.

"There seems to be something about this whole city she deems important," Jubilee offers her view.

No-one can really argue that considering the efforts Patricia has seemingly put into her cover-up...assuming it is her, which is their current concenus.

"So are we really just walking in unannounced?" Bart asks.

Clark snorts. "Like you've never been somewhere uninvited," he scoffs considering Bart's petty thievery exploits.

"Hey, I'm not complaining, just making clear what we're doing," Bart clarifies.

"Luckily Bart we're in the presence of a renowned geneticist and a man with a base knowledge in wider science," the Professor says.

"Really? Who?"

That earns Bart a searing look from the bald man while Clark rolls his eyes. Jubilee has to put her hand over her mouth as she tries and fails to stifle a laugh.

"Point is Mr Allen," Charles says in his lecturing tone, "that I, as a scientist myself, can use that as justification to visit. To see the facilities, share ideas with fellow scientists."

"That and someone might have hacked the visitor registry and entered our names," Iris says too innocently, earning a slight frown from her father because you know, that's technically illegal. In fact now Joe West thinks on it where did his daughter learn how to do that?

"What are we looking for exactly inside?" Jubilee wonders.

"Anything. Everything. Something that might connect this place to what happened that night Bart was struck by lightning and why Patricia puts in so much extra effort," the Professor answers.

"And something about the man in yellow who killed my mom," Bart says, his tone grave in its seriousness.

"We'll do our best, Bart but try not to make yourselves look too suspicious while you're at it," the Professor advises.

"No problems, Professor," Jubilee says cockily. "Stealth is my middle name," she proclaims, lacing her fingers together, cracking her knuckles...and accidentally letting loose a few of her fireworks. "Oops," she says sheepishly.

"We're doomed," Clark mutters, looking to the heavens.

* * *

Dr Harrison Wells was a complicated man. A man of layers. Some would even say a man of masks. They have no idea how right they are.

What they don't understand is that he is a man trapped where he does not belong. A man who will do anything it takes to accomplish his goals.

His goal right now is to finish the particle accelerator he has already spent many years on constructing.

Well that's one of his goals. His other main one is to find the F- _"Dr Wells, your visitors have arrived," _his assistant's voice interrupts his thinking over the intercom.

The dark-haired man sighs in irritation at the interruption before replying, "Very well-wait, what visitors? I don't have any meetings booked for today," he recalls.

"_They're on the registry,"_ comes the reply.

Dr Wells' hands glide over the keyboard of his computer and he pulls up said registry and to his surprise...and suspicion, there is a group booked in as visitors, led by Professor Charles Xavier. That was definitely not there before...and any good assistant would have noticed that. Looks like he'll be getting a new assistant...later. Right now he better deal with this. Appearances and all that.

* * *

The gang...group...team...fam...Jubilee had been trying to come up with a collective noun to ascribe to them, were waiting at reception, just lazily looking around, not that they expected to discover anything in the reception of all places but you never know.

Several minutes past before a dark haired man in a wheelchair rolls into view. "Professor Xavier," the man greets his fellow wheelchair user.

"Dr Wells," Charles greets the man back.

"Forgive my tardiness but it seems my assistant somehow missed your appointment on our system. I assure you I'll be looking into that later," Wells says with what sounds like a slightly menacing tone of voice.

"There are no apologies necessary. These things happen," Charles says, dismissing it for obvious reasons.

Dr Wells stops just short of the group who he eyes one after the other carefully...before stopping on Bart...and looking and looking...so much so it starts to get uncomfortable.

Charles clears his throat to break the moment.

Dr Wells slowly drags his eyes away from the teenage speedster back to the older man. "So what brings you to Central City?" he inquires.

"As you may or may not know, my Institute has a partnership with Star Labs and I've decided to embark on a little fact-finding trip to see what each facility can offer," Charles gives what sounds like a perfectly plausible reason for him to be there...although now he has said it he'll probably have to visit the other Star Labs facilities so as not to raise suspicion. Oh well, maybe it isn't a bad idea.

"I see," Wells responds flatly, almost as if he doesn't believe it. "Well then how about I take you on a tour and you can get a brief overview of all we do here."

"Sounds delightful," Charles replies.

"If you'll follow me," Dr Wells instructs them and they do so.

As the group is led through the floors and varying departments, they discreetly look for anything odd but so far nothing. Everything is as you would expect for a major R&D facility.

"Dr Wells," a voice calls out as the group come to a stop at the approach of an older man with greying/white hair.

"Dr Stein," the wheelchair bound scientist responds. "Everyone this is Martin Stein, one of our most brilliant research scientists. His current project...well I can't give away details but lets just say it will take the world by _Storm _one day."

"Yes, quite. I didn't realise we were having visitors today," Dr Stein reflects on the group in the corridor.

"Yes. It seems to have come out of the blue somehow," Dr Wells says, his tone having a strange almost menacing undercurrent to it. "This is Professor Charles Xavier and guests," he makes the introductions.

"I'm embarking on a tour of all Star Lab facilities in relation to the partnership you have with my Institute," Charles elaborates in cultured tones. "I also thought it would do some of my students some good to have their minds broadened," he tags on to explain the younger people here.

"Some people need to have a mind first, Professor," Iris pipes up with a cheeky grin.

"I shall refrain from asking as to whom you are referring to Ms West," Charles dead-pans.

"West...of course," Dr Wells mutters under his breath in such low tones, no-one but Clark can hear him.

The alien teen frowns slightly, perplexed by what the dark-haired man could possibly find interesting about Iris' surname.

"So what can I help you with Dr Stein?" Wells asks.

"It's nothing that can't wait until after you have dealt with your guests," Dr Stein decides.

"Very well but now that you are here how about we take our guests to meet our interns, hmm?" Wells proposes.

"I doubt they'll complain about having a break," Stein thinks before tagging on, "Well maybe Hartley."

The group are led through Star Labs until they reach a large open-planned work space with a good dozen young people working on various scientific projects.

"Let me introduce you to a few," Dr Wells decides as his eyes scan the room for whom he thinks is appropriate...for a very specific reason.

First off is a scruffy looking Puerto Rican young male, tinkering with a complex looking device.

"This is Francisco Ramon, studying in mechanical engineering," Wells introduces him.

"S'up," he greets the group, barely looking up as he is in the middle of some tricky work.

"I really wouldn't cross connect those two circuits..." Clark begins and then stops as the device shorts-out, sparks and eventually catches fire briefly, smoke billowing from it.

Dr Wells sighs. "Francisco," he says sternly.

"Um...oops," the young scientist says sheepishly.

Wells looks up at Clark. "You have a good eye there Mr…."

"Kent. Clark Kent."

Something indecipherable flashes across Wells' face so quickly no-one but Clark(or Bart) would even notice it. "Of course," he mutters to himself. "Lets leave Mr Ramon to clean up his mess shall we," Wells moves the group on. Next they come to a slender young woman with long brown hair. "This is Caitlin Snow, studying in bio-engineering."

"Hello," she greets them in polite but cool tones.

"Oh Caity, you can do better than that," someone lightly chastises her making her rolls her eyes.

Stepping up behind her is a young man with short dark hair. "I'm Ronnie Raymond," he introduces himself, "and I apologise for Caity. Really she's quite the conversationalist once she warms up to you."

"Stop calling me 'Caity'," she says in distaste, her face screwing up a little in similar dislike.

"I will when you stop reacting to it," Ronnie says with a small smirk.

"I am so cancelling our date tonight," she hisses at him.

"No, you're not," he replies in a jovial tone with a smile making her roll her eyes again. The young woman then throws her hands up and stalks out making Ronnie chuckle. "She loves me really," he says to the group.

"Yes, I can see that," Charles replies. It isn't actually love. Not yet anyway but he could sense that it is on its way towards love despite appearances from the young woman.

"And finally I'll introduce you to...where is Hartley?" Wells wants to know.

Ronnie makes a face. Hartley Rathaway was an almost insufferable arrogant ass. "Didn't like our company. Went away to work on his own," he explains.

Wells makes a noise of irritation. "I'll have a talk with him later."

"Good luck with that."

Visit with the interns over the group resume what is left of their tour. As for why they even came here, that is turning out to be a disappointment. They don't seem to have noticed anything unusual and certainly nothing that relates to whatever happened to Bart those now 3 plus years ago.

So it looks like this whole visit is going to turn out to be a bust in the end. Maybe it was too hopeful to expect to just somehow stumble upon a link between the lightning that gave Bart his powers and this place. Or maybe there is no link and it was just a massive coincidence Bart was standing outside. Still it was right to investigate, if only for the fact that Patricia has visited the facility on an unusually high number of occasions.

Back at the reception Charles is thanking Dr Wells for the tour. "It was very informative Dr Wells. Once I have visited the other Star Labs facilities across the country my staff and I will discuss how our partnership can be utilised for all our betterment."

"The betterment of mankind is a goal we all share, Professor Xavier," Wells replies in what is honestly a very generic statement.

So that seems to be it.

Turn out this Star Labs really is just a run of the mill, nothing out of the ordinary…

BOOM!

The explosion shook the whole building, screams could be heard from frightened people, smoke started to slowly fill the air along with the acrid smell of burning.

Around Clark the world slows down as his instincts take over, his eyes flashing an electric blue as he tries to find the source. He briefly frowns as he discovers parts of the building he can't actually see into. That's weird. Why didn't he notice that earlier? He may have to look into that later when this immediate emergency is dealt with.

Speaking of which...

Doors from the far side of reception fly off their hinges and smash into the glass frontage of the building. Thick smoke billows out and emerging from the smoke comes a group of three people who all look like to be in their late teens. One was a bald, pale man. The 2nd is a large man with steel-grey skin and the 3rd is a dark-skinned woman.

And you know if there weren't a good dozen or more witnesses this sure would be a good time for Clark to do one of his costume changes. Unfortunately there is.

"Mist, some cover please," the grey-skinned man says to the bald one who subsequently transforms into a sickly green cloud that is soon filling the air and everyone's lungs, choking them. The grey-skinned man talks to the woman next. "B, an exit if you will."

The woman's eyes flash for but an instant...and an explosion rips the front of the building apart. With that the green cloud reforms into the bald man and the three make their exit into the city beyond.

It leaves behind a mass of people down on their knees coughing and spluttering as they desperately try to get clean air back into their lungs. Oddly the person who seems to be affected the most is the one you would expect to be affected the least.

Clark is there on his knees, head touching the ground as he hoarsely tries to breathe, his mouth, throat and lungs feeling like their on fire. He hasn't felt anything like this since...his thinking is cut off as he attempts to hack up chunks of his lungs.

Charles coughs harshly. So much for ordinary. What just happened?

* * *

_Author's note: Yep, so the cameos were strong with this one, dropping in characters from the Flash tv show. The exception being the young woman at the end who is actually the Smallville version of Plastique who can just project explosive force from her body unlike the comic book version(the one I've been using in my stories thus far) who has to physically touch something to impart a charge. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Journey to Central City part 3._

_AN1: Hope everyone is keeping safe from the Coronavirus and that this ends asap._


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Some time later the group from Bayville had split into two. Iris, Bart and Jubilee were at Detective West's home while he was, of course, involved into the investigation of what had happened at Star Labs.

Meanwhile Clark and the Professor were back on the Velocity, consulting with Beast over what had happened, specifically to Clark who felt rotten.

"You believe the gas this young man transformed into was laced with kryptonite," Beast is summarising what Clark had been expressing over the video-link.

Clark coughs slightly and nods. "I can never mistake that feeling, Dr McCoy," he replies. Nothing else ever feels like kryptonite. "Actually it felt like...you remember the Battle of Smallville?"

"I don't think we'll ever forget that day, Clark," Charles says wryly.

The grim version of Clark's lopsided grin appears for but a moment as he recalls that day. "You remember Lionel dosed me with a kryptonite gas. That's what it felt like."

"What are you getting at?"

"I always figured it was just something Lionel had cooked up in a lab but what if it wasn't?"

"You're implying that that gas came from this young man."

"We know Lionel was experimenting on those altered by kryptonite," Clark reminds his two teachers.

Sadly that was very true and angered both men.

"He must have escaped when Lionel's empire fell," Beast guesses. "But what of the other two? And what was it that brought them to attack Star Labs?"

Clark shrugs. He has no clue.

"It seems Central City is turning into a City of Mysteries, Henry," Charles says. "We have many questions and thus far few answers...beyond perhaps confirming Bart's true identity and that this is the city of his birth."

"Our lives seems to be dominated by secret agendas," Hank reflects.

That's a disturbing thought.

"In the meantime Clark, I advise you take it as easy as possible. From what we know from the battle in Smallville the gas negates your invulnerability and weakens you and this time there is no Ms Blaire to help burn the gas out your system."

"Dr McCoy, less Ali in my life is never a bad thing," Clark replies, only half-joking. Yeah, he really doesn't have that much against her. More that she is a reminder of a bad period in his life he wishes he could forget. Though she does have that self-destructive streak...hmm.

"I'll reserve comment," Beast says dryly. "But as I said take it easy and if you get worse I will recommend you cut your trip to Central City short and come home. I would have done so already but I get the feeling you aren't done there quite yet and well, frankly nobody listens to me anyway," the doctor jokily laments.

"That's not true, Hank," Charles assures him. "So is anything new happening?" he asks about the situation at the Institute.

"Not much," is the reply. "Corporal Corben remains in a coma. Then again so does Ms Dane(Lorna's mum who is still being looked after at the mansion). Dr Irons wishes to take responsibility for the good Corporal as soon as he can set up the proper facilities."

"As long as Corporal Corben's family has no objections then that is fine," Charles replies. In fact it is probably better that the poor man gets more specialised treatment than they can ever offer at the Institute. Conversation with Hank over Charles' mind returns to the here and now. Hank was right, of course. They are not done here.

* * *

**West Residence...**

"You know you are likely to get me fired, right?" Joe is informing his precious daughter after he got them a copy of the evidence so far of the Star Labs investigation. It was now the day after the attack.

"Err...fortune favours the bold?" Iris offers back, wincing slightly at how dumb that sounded.

Joe stares at her incredulously for several moments before asking, "What are you even looking for?"

Jubilee provides the answer. "The 3 mutants who attacked us. This is what we X-Men do, Detective West."

"Find them and…?"

"Recruit them if they're suitable. Stop them from harming others if they're not and if we have to. Understanding why they did what they did at the very least."

Bart grins in total adoration at his girlfriend.

She notices. "What?"

"Nothing. Just you."

"Just me…?"

"Sounding like the Professor. You know all sensible and authoritative and responsible."

Jubilee arches an eyebrow. Was she sounding like the Professor? "Christ, I've been indoctrinated!" she realises.

"And I think I've been insulted," the Professor's comments dryly as he rolls into the room.

Jubilee's face adopts a full on rebellious grin. "Oh no, Professor. Trust me you'll know the day I choose to insult you."

"And how I look forward to that," he responds dryly. "But in the meantime could you please not make me sound like a cult leader," he requests.

"Yeah, that's Magneto's job," Clark joins in on the conversation.

"Too true," Jubilee acknowledges. "So how you feeling?"

"Better," Clark chooses to respond with. It was true. He was better but he still felt...weakened. Definitely not 100%. Of course he couldn't explain to Iris and her father why he was more affected than anyone else. He had almost forgotten how damn awkward it was to lie about himself all the time to people he considered friends. Living at the mansion with the X-Men had meant he had been able to be himself for years now, without hiding it.

"Let us concentrate on the here and now," Charles speaks up. "We need to find these 3 mutants."

"Says the telepath," Jubilee mutters.

"As I explained last night, Jubilee, there is something inhibiting my ability to locate them," he reminds her. It was inexplicable but for some reason he couldn't narrow in on them. In fact as he tried he realised there was some sort of..._force _dulling his abilities. It's just another layer of mystery to this city that makes little sense.

As if having suddenly developed the ability to read minds, Bart pipes up with, "This makes no sense."

"What, in particular, doesn't Bart?" Charles asks.

"I was reviewing the security footage," Bart says and was doing so at high speed when Iris' dad wasn't paying too close attention. "I can see where and when the 3 left but I can't see where and when they entered. And it's not just that. Look at the damage pattern. The way all the doors are blasted in one direction, heading out, not in. It's almost as if..."

"They were already in the building?" Clark puts forward, thinking he knows what Bart is thinking.

"Well, yeah," Bart concedes.

"That makes no sense," Joe says.

"That's what I said."

Clark's brow develops a deep furrow as his mind tries to put two and two together.

"That's a very skilled analysis, Bart," Charles praises the teenager, genuinely surprised. Seems Bart has some hidden talents.

"It is," Joe agrees. "Maybe you should become a CSI," he says in what is meant to be a quip but will unknowingly leave a deep impression on the young speedster.

* * *

Later Bart, Clark, Jubilee and the Professor have a private conversation outside away from the Wests at Clark's request.

"What trouble you Clark?" Charles asks at the frown on the young man's face.

"I couldn't say this in front of Detective West or Iris but when the first explosion went off I scanned the building and there were spaces I couldn't see into," he relays and of course he couldn't say it in front of the Wests without giving it away who he is...although he's starting to suspect that they, or at least Iris, suspect something but he keeps that to himself.

"It is a research facility Clark. There will be spaces that are protected, lead-lined against radiation," Charles points out.

"True but considering what Bart was getting at earlier..."

"You think these 3 mutants were being held prisoner inside?" Jubilee thinks he's getting at.

Clark's face darkens. "I've been a prisoner, held against my will. Long enough like that your first thought is escape...and that is all that concerned them if you watch the footage. They didn't harm people and they easily could have. They just wanted out."

"But why?" Jubilee asks the all-encompassing question.

"That's the question and I think there is an obvious person to ask."

"Harrison Wells," Charles replies.

Bart makes a face. "Ugh. Was it just me or was there something off about that guy?"

"It definitely wasn't just you," his girlfriend says in total agreement. There was something creepy about him.

"Nope, not just you," Clark says in agreement. "But he's ultimately in charge. I can't imagine, if we suppose that those 3 were being contained inside, that he didn't know which brings us to the number two thing on your mind, after escape, if you've been unjustly imprisoned."

"Which is?" Charles asks.

"Revenge on those that imprisoned you."

"They're going after Wells aren't they," Bart realises.

Clark lets out a sigh, rubbing his face. "Sadly, Bart, I know exactly how they feel and if they don't have my self-restraint..." he trails off, his voice soft and mournful as he is forced to relive memories of his imprisonments.

Jubilee gives him a reassuring pat on the arm and Clark gives her a grateful smile. It was getting a little easier to live with now but sadly, thanks to his perfect memory, he is stuck with it all forever.

The mood grows a little sombre.

"So, do we know when this will happen?" Bart queries, moving the conversation on.

"Hard to say. The police are looking for them. They would have to keep a low profile," Charles assesses the situation.

"And they won't risk going back to Star Labs," Clark tags on. "Too many bad memories for one if we're right on our supposition."

"What about Wells' place?" Bart suggests. "You know get him at home?"

"It's a place to start."

"Clark, you're not 100% at the moment," Charles warns him, instantly guessing where this is heading.

"I know I have a tendency to be a loner, Professor but I like to think I'm not that stupid. Volunteers would be welcome," the young alien says, aiming a look at Bart and Jubilee's direction.

Jubilee breaks out into a huge excited grin. "Cool. Totally count me in," she says enthusiastically, actually looking forward to getting some action in on this trip. "What do ya say, _Bartholomew," _she teasingly uses his proper full name

"Well _Jubilation," _Bart teases back as the two teens openly flirt with each other, "it wouldn't do for me not to try and protect my city of birth now would it?"

"No. It would not," the dark-haired girl says, playfully tweaking Bart's nose.

"If you two are going to start making out can you please give us some warning," Clark complains earning him a derisory look. "Oh, that sounded like the bad me, didn't it," he realises he sounded like the snarky, rude version of himself during the period Apocalypse was trying to mentally manipulate him.

"Perhaps a little," Charles will agree. "Now, before any of you leave, we need to review the security footage and determine as best we can what precisely you might face," he says in relation to discovering what they can about the abilities of the three mutants.

The 3 teens don't argue.

* * *

The last couple of days had been immensely frustrating for Harrison Wells. With the police poking their noses in everywhere, disrupting Star Labs' important work. Risking them finding things he didn't want found. Luckily he planned ahead and had this scenario prepared for...well maybe not this exact scenario but he's almost completely certain the police won't find what he doesn't want them to.

After another long and trying day he rolled towards his home. Hopefully the police will wrap their investigation soon and he can get back to what is far more important. His plans for the Fl - "Dr Wells."

That was his name spoken in none too friendly tones.

He turns his wheelchair around to find himself confronted by the three mutants who caused such havoc only a couple of days ago. Now one might think a disabled man in a wheelchair would show signs of great worry and distress yet not Wells. The man just sits there, calm as you like, not the slightest hint of fear.

"Can I help you?" he asks in calm, measured tones which are so out of place right here and now.

The man with steel grey skin steps forward. "You know the three of us wondered what we would we say to you right now. Would we rant about the injustices of the way you imprisoned us? Poked, prodded and experimented on us? Demand an explanation as to why? Then B here made the good way that that was just way too cliché."

The girl in question smiles proudly at herself.

"No. I think we can live without knowing why. That being the case I think we'll just kill you and move on with our lives."

"How very progressive of you," Wells remarks dryly but subtly you can see the man's muscles tense in anticipation and if you look very closely even the muscles of his supposedly immobile legs. Wells is a man of many secrets.

"Just kill him already," the bald one complains.

The grey-skinned man squeezes his hand into a fist and throws the punch...only to hit nothing but the wheelchair which he demolishes in a single punch, showing that he is super-strong and that punch, if it had connected, would have killed Wells dead.

The only thing the 3 saw was a red blur and golden lightning.

Their heads snap to the left to find Wells in the arms of a kid in a red-hoodie with a lightning motif across the front of it. "Gonna have to leave you here a minute, Doc," Impulse tells him as he places the man down on the ground. "But don't worry I'll be back in a flash!" he promises as he zips away, golden lightning trailing in his wake.

He starts to zip around and around the 3 mutants, kicking up a whirlwind until the eyes of the aforementioned 'B' flash and the ground explodes, sending Impulse into the air until he is caught by Superman, dressed not in the Kryptonian armour he got from the collector but in his usual red and blue jacket, shirt, pants and boots.

"Thanks, Big Blue," Impulse says gratefully and he is lowered back onto his feet.

"Guess you were right about the revenge gig," the 3rd member of the trio comments as Jubilee, in her typical yellow coat joins the two boys.

"Honestly wish I wasn't,"Superman says because it also means he was probably right that these 3 were being held against their will within Star Labs. That has implications and consequences but he'll deal with those later. He steps forward with Impulse and Jubilee backing him. "I know you're angry," he addresses the three. "I've been where you are," he says in sympathy. After Apocalypse...Rao there was so much anger. "And as much as you think hurting Dr Wells will help I assure you it won't. It won't do a damn thing to make you feel better but you do have a chance right here and now to be better. We can take you to meet someone who can offer you a safe place. A place where you'll be accepted. A place to learn about and understand your powers. You have the choice."

The grey-skinned leader of the trio looks massively unimpressed. "You know you're right," he says in response. "We do have a choice...and I'm going to go with Option **B**!"

And in response B's eyes flash and an explosion impact Superman directly in the chest sending him flying backwards.

"Two can play at that game!" Jubilee snarls back as she unleashes her 'fireworks' from her hands smashing into the girl who hit Superman sending her tumbling back.

"Cover me," Impulse says to her and Jubilee sends out a distracting cloud of her fireworks at the 2 males as he speeds in.

Meanwhile Superman is finding that even a couple of days later from first inhaling that gas he's still less than 100%. He felt that blast far more than he should have though he is not actually seriously hurt in any manner. He gets back to his feet muttering, "Next time I'm leaving the recruitment speeches to the Professor."

In seconds he's speeding back the short distance he was blasted away, finding Impulse has made the misjudgement of getting too near the grey-skinned man who smashed the speedster down into the ground hard as if Bart was as light as a feather.

The grey-skinned man was the one of the three whose powers they hadn't been able to nail down from reviewing the security footage but Clark guesses from that small display that super-strength is part of it.

Just as the super-strong man is about to smash his foot down atop Impulse's head Superman barges into him sending him tumbling. Not pretty but effective enough.

Superman holds a hand out for Impulse and pulls the groggy younger teen to his feet. "Up you get. No slouching on the job," he says in jest.

"Thanks, dude," Impulse says with a groan. Lucky he heals fast.

Clark frowns at a hissing sound from behind them. He spins round, his eyes opening slightly wider as from the bald man's mouth he is spewing that deadly(to him definitely) green gas. He even finds himself taking a step back as a slight wave of nausea strikes him. He's too damn close he suddenly realises.

"I got this," Impulse promises, seeing the situation, knowing just how bad this could get for his friend. He zips forward, holding his breath as he does so and strikes a superfast punch into the guy's face. "Did no-one tell ya smoking is bad for your health," he critiques.

The bald man's face screws up in anger before his whole body transforms in that green gas and it surges toward the speedster, engulfing him.

Impulse zips out backward coughing as the gas starts chasing him. At least it is chasing him away from Clark. Though if someone has a suggestion how he takes down a giant green cloud he would welcome it right now. He snaps his fingers as he suddenly remembers and activates his communicator. "You there, Doc?"

"That's Professor, Impulse and I am. How is it going?"

"Well like Stretch thought they showed up and right now I'm being chased by a giant cloud. Any ideas how one fights a cloud?"

"The mutant has transformed into his mist state?"

"Yep...and you know it's a hell of a lot faster than I would have thought," Impulse complains as he finds himself straining to stay ahead of it. "I have gotta lay off all those trans-fats," he remarks glibly.

"A wise idea."

"Yeah, need one of those right now Doc!" Impulse says urgently as he weaves along the road he is running along as the gas surges at him.

The Professor thinks quickly, drawing on his expertise. "Gas is the least stable form of matter. By its nature it wants to spread out and disperse. I cannot imagine the mutant can maintain this form for long periods before he has to reform. You just need to keep ahead of him until he exhausts himself."

"Well it better be soon," Impulse mutters to himself as he finds himself having to suddenly dive out the way. He rolls to a stop on the roadside verge as said mutant retakes a solid form. The man glares at the speedster before turning back into gas.

Impulse shoots back to his feet and speeds off again, lighting trailing in his wake, his gaseous foe in hot pursuit.

When the cloud makes another surge to grab him, Impulse skids to a stop, allowing it to fly right past him.

It's then the cloud reforms again...and this time the man is clearly winded, half-bent over.

Impulse sees his chance, zips forward and 'POW!'.

Man, other people only wish they were half this good.

Victory managed, Impulse lumps the guy over his shoulder and starts running back the way he came.

* * *

Jubilee has quickly figured out that the tell-tale sign of the girl using her power was a flash in her eyes...which gives her just the fraction of a second warning she needs to dive out the way, sending a stream of her own explosive power back as she goes, forcing her opponent to dive out the way.

Jubilee reaches into her gymnastic background, flipping head over heels over another blast. "Come on girl, seriously!" she complains. "We offered ya a roof over your head and 3 square meals and this is the thanks we get!"

"We didn't ask for anything!" B snarls. "And where were you damn X-Men when we were all rotting in that pipeline?!"

"Pipeline-whoa!" Jubilee cries as he is sent flying by a blast hitting at her feet.

"You should have stayed outta this!" B yells as she stomps over to stand over Jubilee, gathering her power, readying for the final strike when suddenly there is a gust of wind and lightning and B is sent flying.

At first Jubilee thinks it's Bart...until she realises two things. One, no Bart. And two, that lightning...it was not gold in colour. It was red.

You know Clark, like everyone else at the Institute, was never a huge fan of Logan's lessons but on the other hand he really does appreciate the effort his teacher made to instruct him on hand-to-hand combat.

It makes a world of difference, especially when you have to fight someone with no training. Someone who clearly is little more than a super-powered thug. It is doubly important when he is not at 100%...and even a whiff of that gas is not doing him any favours at all.

Clark blocks a punch, before jabbing the guy in the throat, making him gag. "I offered you a chance, remember that," he says as he kicks the guy in the gut and there is a loud 'Thud!' sound, like metal striking metal.

His opponent charges and Clark almost rolls his eyes as he flips the guy over, using his own momentum against him and gets him in a choke hold, Superman's foot pressing down on the windpipe and he keeps it there until he is quite certain the guy is out cold.

"Wow, you didn't even break a sweat," Jubilee remarks as she walks over, carrying an unconscious B over her shoulder before dropping the girl on the ground next to her partner.

"He was just a thug with super-strength," Superman replies with a shrug. "You ok?" he asks after her.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Jubilee insists as she dusts herself off. "How about you?"

"Slightly nauseous but I'll live."

"That wasn't what I meant."

"Huh?"

"We may not do this all that often Supes but usually you're cracking jokes," she points out the difference.

Clark shrugs. "Not in the mood."

Jubilee grins. "Wow, you have it bad."

"Huh?" he repeats.

"A few days away from Jean and you're a misery," she gives her belief of why he isn't in the mood.

Clark gives her a sceptical look. Yeah, he misses Jean but he wouldn't go as far as that being the cause of his downbeat mood.

"By the way what happened to the suit?"

"What suit?"

"That fancy one you came back with from space."

"Oh that one. It's up at the Fortress."

"Why?"

Clark shrugs. "I don't know. Just didn't feel...right. Like something was missing."

Jubilee, for once, has nothing.

Seconds later they are joined by Bart who dumps his bald-headed foe to the ground. "Well that was fun," he sarcastically complains. "Why did we come here again?" he asks.

"Dr Wells," Superman begins to answer before he remembers they left the man on the ground. He zips away, picks the man up and places him sitting against the man's front door since the wheelchair is toast. "You ok, Dr Wells?" he asks after the man's well-being.

"I am fine, thank you," he says tersely.

"I have a question," Jubilee pipes up with. "What does the word 'pipeline' mean to ya?"

"I am afraid it means nothing to me."

"So it wasn't where you were keeping those 3 prisoner?" the Californian girl speculates about what that word meant.

"That sounds dangerously close to an accusation there. You should be careful about making unfounded ones. Likely to result in litigation," Wells warns her.

Oh this guy's attitude is getting right up Jubilee's wick. "Why you arrogant, condescending, son of a..."

"Jubilee!" Superman cuts her off. "That's enough. And Dr Wells is correct. We don't make go around making unfounded accusations."

"Listen to your friend. He clearly is the smart one," Wells says.

"However, when we have the evidence we'll be back to make founded ones," Superman promises.

"I have nothing to hide," Wells claims, his gaze going beyond the 3 heroes as the sound of police sirens fills the air.

Superman frowns. When did the man have time to call them?

The 3 heroes stay just long enough to check the police have the 3 mutants secure before they depart.

As for Wells, if you're wondering what will stop the 3 mutants telling the police everything...lets just say that their futures are going to be cut a little short.

* * *

_Author's Note: The Professor's malfunctioning powers is just to emphasise that there is something very wrong about Central City as well as making sure we can build to the little fight scene at Wells' place. What it is that is wrong with the city, is of course, the great mystery. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Journey to Central City part 4._

_AN1: Hope everyone is staying safe from the Coronavirus._


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"Wells is unquestionably hiding something," Clark is catching the Professor up on the night's events as the two have the conversation outside Detective West's house. The man had been very generous over the imposition they had caused. "But since I can't see into all of Star Labs it would require breaking and entering," the young alien continues.

"Which would probably be pointless right now because if the police couldn't find anything and as far as we know they haven't, it would indicate Dr Wells has hidden everything important."

"How? That fast?" Clark asks, not understanding how it would be possible.

"A good question. One we don't have the answer to."

"Nothing here makes sense," Clark grumbles.

"I quite agree. Whatever Patricia has done has left this city extremely...odd."

"I feel like I'm back living in Smallville; the Centre of Weirdness. It's even got a Luthor-esque style cover-up going on," the former resident of Smallville remarks, astonished at the similarities.

Charles lets out a small laugh but Clark is not wrong. "We're going to have to try and keep an eye on Dr Wells and Star Labs."

"Yep, lets just add that on the list of 101 other things we need to keep an eye on."

Again Clark's not wrong...or not far wrong. It does seem like they have an ever increasing list of people and organisations they need to monitor. Honestly Charles is starting to think they may need to be a little more proactive in tackling at least some of this but that's a discussion for another day.

* * *

Speaking of another day it is the next day that is a really, really, really, really big day for Bart. It's the day he's going to visit in jail the man he believes is his dad.

Bart is usually extremely cocky. Today he's extremely quiet and nervous. He's not even sure what to say to the man.

'Hello Dad! Sorry I haven't been round in 4 years but you know I was struck my lightning, lost my memory and gained super-powers!'

Oh yeah, that's about right...not!

"You need to relax, Bart," the Professor encourages him to. "There is no pressure on you. No expectation. Your father will simply be happy to see you I am certain."

Bart tries to relax. "We really certain he's my dad?"

"As far as we can be right now without a DNA test."

"Yeah but who names their kid 'Bartholomew'?" the blond teen half-jokingly gripes, making a face.

Charles chuckles. "Something to ask."

Bart takes a deep breath. "Alright. Lets do this thing," he says, trying to sound as determined as he can but on the inside he was a wreck.

* * *

**Iron Heights Prison...**

"You sure you want me to accompany you, Bart?" Clark asks as the two stand outside the prison, just about to enter. He was a bit surprised to be asked figuring Bart would want to do this by himself or if he wanted company bring Jubilee along.

"Yeah. I mean my, uh, dad," that was still so weird to say the word 'dad', "will have questions and you probably know more about happened to me than I do."

Clark half-smiles. "Not really Bart. The few years between you getting hit by the lightning and us meeting in Metropolis was all you."

Bart shrugs. "There ain't much to tell really unless we're reliving my petty thievery days."

Clark waits, having a feeling there's more behind this.

"And I'm kinda worried that for once I won't know what to say," Bart says quietly, showing a shy, nervous side rarely seen.

Clark places a reassuring hand on Bart's shoulder. "Just speak from your heart."

"So just to make sure Detective West sorted all this out, right?"

"Yes, Bart. We're on the visitor list. Just try and remember to follow the rules."

"Ok, ok. I'm ready," he says as the two friends make their way inside along with all the other visitors.

* * *

Henry Allen, formerly Doctor, he was stripped of his licence for obvious reasons, has had many bad days these last 7 years, starting with his wife's murder and his conviction for it. The day he was told his son was missing was up there but when he was told that his son had not only apparently shown up alive and well but was coming to visit him counts as one of his happiest.

He must admit as he waits behind the glass to a certain degree of impatience. He wonders what Barry looks like now at 16.

And that's when two young people stride into view. A tall man with dark curly hair and glasses and a shorter, younger one with blond hair that can only be his son.

The two sit down and pick up the receivers as Henry does the same.

"Um, hey, dad," Bart says softly. "Long time no see," he lamely jokes.

"Barry," Henry says lovingly.

'_Run, Barry. Run.'_

Bart blinks. "It was you. It was your voice in my dream. You told me to run," he realises.

Henry looks confused.

Clark steps in, thinking he knows what is going on. "Hello Mr Allen. My name is Clark Kent. I'm a friend of your son. He was nervous about coming here alone," he explains his presence. "I'll try and explain as succinctly as I can. As I'm sure you know Bart vanished 4 years ago. As far as we can piece together he was struck by lightning and consequently suffered total amnesia."

Henry looks at his son closely and in great concern, his doctor's eye trying to discern any injury.

Clark continues. "A little over a year ago I bumped into him in Metropolis living rough and persuaded him to come live with me," he explains, glossing over the details like Bart's stealing. "Lately he's been having dreams which we think are his memories trying to break through and from those we were able to get enough detail to discover his real identity and lead us to you."

That's a lot to take in Henry must say. It was also the reason Bart asked Clark along so he could explain stuff like this far better than the younger speedster ever could.

"It was the night mom died," Bart says in a croaky voice. "That's what I've been dreaming about and you, you told me to run didn't you?"

"I did," Henry says, the pain of that night, the pain of the night he lost his wife, the worst night of his life, clear in his voice. "But honestly son, if there was one memory I wouldn't wish you to have it's that one."

"It wasn't you. It was that guy in yellow. Why are you in here?" he asks earnestly.

"No-one believed me."

"Surely I must have told them."

"No-one believed you."

"They what? Thought I was traumatised?" Bart correctly guesses.

"Yes."

"Bullcrap!"

"Son..."

"No," Bart says, shaking his head furiously. "It's total nonsense," he claims and despite having extremely limited memories of it all he just knows all this is utter garbage.

"Son, look at me," Henry pleads with his irate offspring. "We only have an hour. Let us not waste it talking about things we cannot change. Let me get to know my son again. Tell me about yourself. Start with why your friend keeps calling you Bart?"

"He thinks Barry makes him sound like, and I quote, 'an old guy'," Clark teases.

Henry lets out a small laugh. "I see that teenage rebellion phase is in full swing," he remarks, actually seemingly delighted by it.

"Yeah, well anything better than _Bartholomew," _Bart says making a face and sticking his tongue out in distaste. "Did you choose that?"

"No. That one was your mother," Henry says with a nostalgic grin.

"Well if Bartholomew or even Barry is uncomfortable for you how about 'Slugger'?" Bart's dad suggests.

"Slugger?" Bart queries with an odd expression

"My nickname for you," Henry explains.

"Slugger," Bart repeats, trying it out to see if he likes it or maybe to see if it can stir any sort of memory.

As the next hour passes Bart tries to tell his father about his life, without revealing the super-powered bit. He's not sure his dad is ready for that.

Clark and Bart bicker like only friends can, telling embarrassing stories about the other.

Nearing the end of the hour the subject gets onto Bart's personal life.

"So you have a girlfriend," Henry says, happy to hear his son is dating.

"Yeah, Jubilee."

Henry quirks his head curiously.

"Jubilation Lee. Jubilee," Clark guesses what he's curious about.

"Ah," Henry says.

"And what is she like?"

"She's great!" Bart says, smiling like a goof.

"That's only because she doesn't constantly play pranks on you," Clark says, almost scowling at all the times Jubilee has got him.

"Dude, I like help with her with those at least half the time."

"I should have known," Clark grumbles, rolling his eyes.

Henry smiles. He was glad his son had such a good friend.

"I'm afraid our time's almost up," Clark has to sadly point out.

"Give us a minute?" Bart requests and Clark nods stepping away, allowing father and son a minute of private time.

"I'm so glad to know you're alive and well, son," Henry says, tearing up.

"I'm sorry I can't remember you more," Bart says apologetically.

"You're alive. That's all that matters."

"No. Not when you're wrongly stuck in here," Bart argues.

"Slugger, you need to live your own life. Not worry about me."

"Of course I'm going to worry about you. You're my dad," Bart says with conviction and despite his lack of memory he's absolutely certain this man is his dad. "I'm not sure exactly when but I'll come visit again," he promises.

"I'll look forward to it," Henry says truthfully.

"Um, next time, can I...can I ask you about mom?" Bart wonders, hoping he's not treading on too painful a memory but he so wants to know about his mother. They didn't really touch on much about her this last hour.

"Of course. You can ask anything you want about your mother," Henry gives his permission, wanting his son to know about how wonderful a woman Nora was.

Bart nods, his face wrought with conflicting emotions. Though one might ask how you can have emotions about a man you almost have no memory of. Before he goes he gives his father a vow. "I promise somehow I'm going to find a way to remember you and get you out of here. No matter what."

* * *

**West Residence...**

"Well I think it is fair enough to say we have imposed on you long enough Detective West," Charles says grateful to the man as the Bayville gang begin to wind down their stay in Central City.

"Well I can't say your visit has been dull...though it does feel like there are a lot of loose ends left," Detective West feels.

"I'm afraid that is fairly typical for us, depressingly," Clark gripes.

"Yes. It is almost certain this will not be the last you see of us in Central City," Charles believes. There are too many unanswered questions left.

"Well in the meantime I'll keep you updated if anything shows up on Wells and Star Labs," Detective West decides.

"We would appreciate that and if I can get any solid answers on the manipulations involving you and your daughter I will, of course, let you know," Charles promises in return.

Joe still isn't sure how he feels about that, especially since it might have directly led to the end of his marriage.

The Professor and Clark leave so that father and daughter can say their farewells privately.

"So...this is goodbye," Iris says, part of her not really wanting to go.

"Seems so."

After a moment of hesitation Iris throws herself into her father's arms. "I've missed you," she whispers full of deep emotion.

"I've missed you too," Joe says back with the same deep emotions.

Iris pulls back, unshed tears in her eyes and laughs a little awkwardly. "I didn't even realise how much until now. Silly isn't it."

"No. Not all all."

"I'll, uh, try and figure out a way to visit more," Iris tells her father.

"I would like that."

* * *

Outside Charles has a brief look skyward, judging the weather for the flight home. "I shall be glad to leave this city," he confesses to Clark. "I do not like the way it muffles my powers," he says distastefully.

"Well Patricia has a lot to answer for..." Clark trails off suddenly.

"Clark?"

"I just had a crazy idea," he replies as he fishes out his phone and dials.

Charles watches on in interest. _"Hello?" _he hears the puzzled sounding female voice, a familiar voice.

"Hello Patricia," Clark says.

"_Clark?"_

"You sound surprised. That must be a first. So quick question. Who is he? Who is the man in yellow you're trying so hard to hide?"

"_You're in Central City," _the woman says, sounding utterly baffled. _"You're not suppose to be there!" _she hisses.

"Fun fact Patricia; I don't live my life by what you think I'm suppose to do," Clark says sharply, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice at her constant manipulations of his fucking life. "And you haven't answered the question. Who is the man in yellow?" he insists on knowing.

"_Not your concern," _Patricia says, almost sounding angry. _"I'm dealing with it. That's all you need to know. **He **is nothing to do with you."_

Clark lets out a bitter laugh. "Oh finally, something that doesn't revolve around me! This is a red-letter day!" he proclaims.

Charles arches an eyebrow. He hadn't realised just how much anger and bitterness Clark had involving Patricia. Something to talk about at their next therapy session.

"_Leave, Clark," _Patricia orders him.

"Another fun fact Patricia; you're not the boss of me."

Silence.

"Huh. She hanged up," Clark realises, confused by her reaction. He looks at the Professor. "Is my voice really that annoying?"

Charles smiles at Clark's humour. "It would be inappropriate for myself to give you an answer to that."

"Typical," Clark jokily mutters.

"That was interesting though, even if not very informative," Charles concludes about that phone call.

"More than you think, Professor."

"Explain."

"I've never been able to catch up with Patricia."

"Because of her gift of foresight."

Clark nods. "I haven't even been able to get her on the phone because she always knows it's me."

Charles blinks as the implications of that phone call start to coalesce in his mind. "Then how?"

"My crazy idea," Clark responds. "The gift of foresight is classified as a psychic ability. This city dulls your psychic abilities..."

"So you guessed it might affect Patricia's," Charles fills in.

Clark shrugs. "If it didn't work, we didn't lose anything."

Charles rubs his head a little. "How does that make sense? If we assume this city's strangeness is her doing."

"Unintended side-effect...or we've been making a bad assumption."

"Patricia isn't responsible for this city's strangeness," Charles puts forward the other possibility they hadn't really considered up to now. But if Patricia is not responsible who or what is?

"Oh I'm fairly certain she's responsible for at least some it some of it," Clark believes. "Her presence in those pictures and her basically confessing in that call shows she has some sort of connection to this man in yellow but that's not what is the important discovery from that phone call."

"What is?"

"How do you catch someone who can foresee the future?" Clark asks the very difficult question they've been grappling with ever since Patricia re-entered his life. Clark then answers his own question. "You find their blind spot. This city is Patricia's. This city is how we catch her."

Charles takes a few minutes thinking that over. "Perhaps," he says cautiously. "But even without her gift of foresight Patricia is very smart and very powerful," he warns.

"Oh I know it still won't be easy, Professor," Clark accepts. "And it won't be today or tomorrow or possibly any day soon. We'll need a plan, one she can't see coming and a lure. Something she can't resist to get her to come here but at least I can see a way it can be done now."

Before the Professor can say anything the conversation is interrupted by Iris emerging from the house.

"Ok, I'm ready to go home now," the brown-haired girl announces.

"Very well. Bart and Jubilee said they'd meet us at the airfield," Charles informs the young Ms West. Bart...just needed to do one last thing before they left.

* * *

'NORA ALLEN. BELOVED WIFE AND MOTHER'

Bart stares at the stone that marks where his mother lies. It somehow doesn't seem enough.

"Hi mom," he says softly as he lays some flowers down. "I'm, um, sorry I haven't been here for awhile but I lost my memory. I was struck by lightning and if you can believe it I gained super-powers. I'm the Fastest Man Alive!" he says proudly. "I wish you were here to see it," he says with heartfelt truth.

He pauses.

"I want to tell you that I got these powers and did something good with them but truth is I didn't. I used them to steal. I used them to steal stuff for really bad people because they paid me to," he says and he was ashamed of himself. "I was so selfish. I never thought anyone was getting hurt. Then one day they did. People died, mom because of my stupid choices."

Bart sniffles, trying to hold back his emotions.

"I didn't even tell dad this. Maybe I will one day. I suppose if one positive thing came out of it is that I met Clark. He's kinda my best friend...and an alien." Bart chuckles. It's somehow still so absurd to just say that aloud. "Yep, he really is from another planet. The world's completely kooky now. I mean I live at a school for mutants, for people with super-powers...and I'm trying to do right now. No more stealing, promise."

Bart runs his hand through his hair as he contemplates what else he wants to say.

"So I went to see dad. I know he didn't do it. I know he didn't kill you and I'm going to find a way to prove it. By the way, random topic change, did you really have to call me _Bartholomew?" _ he asks, utterly unable to let that go.

"So yeah, I wish I could stay longer but I kinda have to get going but I'll come visit again. I promise."

Bart lets out a breath as a welcome presence saddles up beside him and takes his hand into her own.

"You ok?" Jubilee asks him.

"No," Bart honestly admits. "The only memory I have of her is the night she dies. How unfair is that?"

Jubilee squeezes his hand and drops a kiss on his cheek. She feels for him. She really does. It's horrible that that is the only memory he has of his mother. "I'm certain she would be proud of you."

"You think so? I've done some...uncool stuff."

"Me too but you're a good person Bart. The fact you feel guilt shows you are. Bad people don't feel guilt and look, I can only guess what kind of person your mother was but I'm certain she would forgive you for your misdemeanours."

Bart would like to think so.

"We should get going," Jubilee tells him. "Goodbye Mrs Allen. Thanks for giving us Bart," she says to the grave, grateful to the woman for giving her her boyfriend.

Bart smiles lovingly at his dark-haired girlfriend before sweeping her up into his arms and having a quick look around to make sure no-one is watching.

Jubilee has to say she loves this bit.

And in a flash of golden lightning and a gust of wind the two vanish...but not as unseen as they thought.

For hiding in some nearby bushes is a man. A man dressed all in yellow with glowing red eyes. He speaks in menacing tones, _**"****We'll be seeing you again soon, Flash. ****For o****ur race is not yet done!"**_

* * *

_Author's Note: In the Smallville season 11 comics they decided to make Bart from the 31st century but honestly I never liked it. There was never any reason Bart couldn't have been Barry with a different origin story. To me, in my stories, Bart has always been an amnesic Barry Allen and yeah I'm also throwing in some of the Flash tv show. As for the differences Thawne can look in a mirror for the cause. To me, when he killed Nora he didn't just change history, he broke it which is how he ended up stuck and how Bart ended up getting his powers when he was 12(though there is slightly more to it than that I didn't write about because you can't reveal everything at once). Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; The final countdown to Brainiac's plans begins._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"_In the latest news from Starling City, continuing reports emerge of a vigilante terrorising the city. While no clear images have yet been captured, eye-witnesses describe a man in a green hood who uses a bow and arrows to kill his victims. Due to this he has become to known as the Hood. A police task force is being set up and the Mayor has vowed to bring this man to justice. For more we go to our correspondent live in Starling City..."_

"Do you know what that is about?" the ever lovely Jean Grey asks her boyfriend. It was May now and the weather was warming up nicely. It was also the weekend and she was back at the Institute so her and Clark could spend it together. They were simply sitting in the kitchen having breakfast together with the news on the tv in the corner. Though when a tv got added to the kitchen Jean has no idea. Use to just be a radio.

Clark shakes his head. "Nope. Strange as this may sound Jean I'm not omniscient."

"Oh I know that," Jean says far too seriously, a cheeky playfulness in her green eyes.

Clark rolls his eyes.

Jean chuckles lightly. "So exams done. Looking forward to graduation?"

"Mom and dad are," Clark reports back. His parents were, well, most parents he guesses. Gushing over with pride at seeing their kids(Claire too) about embark on the next stage of their lives.

"Not you?" Jean queries, curiosity alight in her eyes.

Clark chews over his answer for a minute. "No. I am," he decides.

"Then off to ESU," Jean tells what's next. Clark got in easily enough to pursue the degrees he needs to become a journalist. Jean loves talking to him about that because you can hear his passion. Hear and see how much he cares about it. It's important to him so it's important to her.

To Jean it is also a good indication that he's healing from Apocalypse. Its been a long struggle. Of that there is no doubt but every day they have been together Jean can see more and more of the old Clark re-emerging. The one his amnesia episode showed was still there. The one Jean deeply cares for and will do everything in her power to continue to tease back out.

They are joined in the kitchen by Bart, who has his head stuck in a textbook. Barely acknowledging the couple he grabs something to eat and then leaves.

Jean blinks owlishly. "Was Bart studying?" she queries in shock. She has never seen him studying.

"Jean, he's been doing that since our trip to Central City last month," Clark informs her with an amused grin at her expression.

"He has?"

Clark nods. "He's determined to get his dad out of jail. Almost as soon as we got back he started trying to find ways to help. Heck, he even considered Law School for a couple of days."

"He wants to be a lawyer?!" she cries, unable to imagine that.

"No. Like I said, couple of days. Then he moved on to some kind of police role."

Jean blinks stunned. "I can't imagine that."

"I can. Bart is cleverer than he lets on," he points out.

"I'll have to take your word for it. So he wants to be a cop?"

"Actually last I checked he was looking into the forensic sciences. You know a CSI."

"I can imagine that even less," the red-head says, sounding very sceptical about Bart's ability to become that.

"Actually when we were in Central City he did show some aptitude for it," Clark recalls.

Jean is pretty much flabbergasted by that statement. She takes a moment to compose her thoughts. "By the way did you get anywhere with finding that man in yellow?"

"No," Clark says, annoyed about it still because that man is the key to Bart's past and helping his dad and Clark, naturally, wants to help his friend.

Jean lifts her up her cup of coffee and takes a sip letting herself absorb all this.

"_In New York the court decided that accused international assassin Graham Garrett be remanded in custody until his trial begins later in the year. Garrett, a mutant with the power to become invisible, is seen here arriving at court wearing the latest in power inhibitors which are rapidly becoming standard equipment for all police forces in the United States. He was captured last week by Superman and Daredevil..."_

Clark makes a face. "That guy's a jerk," he mutters.

Jean arches an eyebrow. "Which one? Garrett or Daredevil?"

"Both."

"I'll have to take your word for that," Jean says with an amused expression at her boyfriend's grumpiness. She can only take his word since she wasn't there and doesn't know either man involved.

"I could have seriously done without the relationship drama though."

"Whose drama?"

"Daredevil's. Him and this female assassin called Electra. Seriously they have got issues!"

"I would suppose so if he's a vigilante and she's a hired killer," Jean can imagine. "By the way how did you fail to catch her?" she wonders.

Clark makes a noise of annoyance. "Lets just say she's better at disappearing than the guy who can actually turn invisible."

Impressive. To have actually escaped Clark is no mean feat.

"_In business news Frost Industries has launched an aggressive takeover attempt of Lexcorp. With Lex Luthor facing trial over his alleged involvement with the Collector of Worlds, the alien entity that attempted to steal the towns of Bayville and Smallville, it seems Frost Industries' majority shareholder and CEO Emma Frost deems Lexcorp vulnerable. However, most analysts believe that despite his legal distractions Lex will be able to fight it off. We go over to our business correspondent..."_

It's now Jean's turn to make a noise of annoyance. "Seriously?! That woman," she mutters in none too polite tones.

And now it's Clark's turn to arch the eyebrow. Jean is mostly one of the genuinely nicest people you will ever meet but mention the words 'Emma Frost' in her presence and prepare for the atmosphere to get cooler than when Bobby is around. He also feels a need to raise something with her. "So, um, is Scott really..."

"Yes!" Jean cries in total aggravation. Scott is back dating Emma. It had become known thanks to the Gossip Queen aka Domino. "I mean, how many times can he forgive her? What does she have to do before he sees her for the manipulative, amoral cow that she is?"

"Truthfully here Jean, Scott and I...aren't as close as we use to be. I mean we were for awhile after we all got caught back in the woods after the rescue at Alkali Lake..."

Jean has to shake her head at Clark bringing that up. Wow, that seems like it was a seriously long time ago now when it's actually been a little less than 2 years. She can smile more wryly about it now than she did then.

Clark continues, "But we've...I don't know, drifted apart," he says, sounding a little sad about it.

"It's alright Clark. I'm not expecting you to know what goes on in that thick head of his. I'm a telepath and I don't know! I just do not understand what he sees in her. Even when she was here he saw something in her I never did. Something...redeemable but honestly and I don't say this often about anyone, I don't think there is anything redeemable about Emma."

Clark looks at his lovely girlfriend with surprise. She's right. She doesn't say that often. Heck, she found something redeemable in an actual machine, Toyman's creation Darci. In fact the two and quite good friends now. "So, uh, we ever going to talk about what happened between you and Emma back then?" he tries to raise gently.

Jean's expression sours.

"It's just you ask me to open up...and I'm digging a great big hole for myself aren't I?"

"Yes...but you're right. I do ask you and it's not fair if I don't reciprocate. Just not today, ok?"

"Ok," Clark agrees.

"_In local news a date has now be set for the Parade in which the citizens of Bayville will have the opportunity to give their thanks to Superman for saving us all from the alien entity known as the Collector of Worlds. The Parade will culminate with the giving of the Key to the City to the Man of Steel..."_

"Oh Rao," Clark groans, desperately wishing he didn't have to go through with that.

Jean grins impishly. Clark's reaction helping improve her mood almost instantly after having to think about Emma and Scott. She reaches over and takes his hand into hers. She does find it funny his reaction but on the other hand she understands Clark doesn't like all this praise and hero worship. That for him this has nothing to do with why he uses his powers to help people. He doesn't want a reward. He does it because simply he is that good a person and it is right.

"I've never forgiving dad for this," Clark swears. His dad, the Mayor, refused to veto it.

"It won't be so bad," Jean argues with her boyfriend. "Besides I agree with your dad. The people need this after what happened," she reminds him of what Mr Kent has been saying in trying to talk Clark round to embracing it.

"Yeah but I'll have to make a speech...another one," Clark complains. He's really not comfortable making public speeches despite the fact that anyone who has ever heard him make one will tell ya he's actually very good at it.

"I'll help you write it," Jean offers without any reservation.

Clark sighs, leans over and kisses Jean gently on the cheek. "Thank you," she says, showing he's accepted the inevitable and that he will have to do this.

"You're welcome," Jean says, smiling radiantly. "By the way, mentioning parents, after the Graduation Ceremony I'll be going home to visit mine," she informs him.

"Of course," Clark accepts easily. She should go visit her family. "I'll miss you though," he tells her genuinely.

"I would miss you too except..."

"Except?" Clark asks, his blue eyes looking at her with a mixture of curiosity and puzzlement.

"Except I want you to come with me and meet them."

Clark blinks. "Um, you want me to meet your parents?" he asks, checking he hadn't misheard her.

"Of course I do," the red-head replies as if it is obvious.

Clark rubs the back of his neck in his shy, nervous gesture. "Do they know about me?"

Jean nods. "Hmm, hmm," she confirms she has told them she was dating again. "Are you afraid, Clark?" she asks him teasingly, bordering on the amused at the idea.

"Well, it's just...I've never really had to meet the parents of someone I was seeing," he tries to explain.

Jean gives him a peculiar look. "That can't be right," she thinks.

Clark elaborates. "Look, there was Lana. Her parents died in the meteor shower. Her Aunt Nell, I had known since I was a kid because mom and dad were friends with her. And then there was Rogue...well I was already dating her when we found out Logan was her dad. And Yana only has her brother and he was already living here by the time she and I returned from Limbo."

Jean stares at him. He's right. "Well consider this a new experience in normal human dating."

"I...uh...just don't want to mess it up and them not to like me," he says, his shy, nervous side showing through clearly.

"They'll love you Clark," Jean assures him. "Just like..."

"Morning!" a golden-skinned girl interrupts before Jean can finish.

"Morning Chlo," Clark greets her.

"Yeah, morning," Jean also says, her voice a little more suppressed as she kinda finds her mind reeling from what she was about to say. What she really about to say 'Just like me'? Oh God, oh god, oh god. She means she likes Clark. Really, really, really likes Clark but the last person she said the L-word to was Scott and look how that panned out. Her heart got stomped on. She can't be in love with him already...can she?

Jean looks up at him, with his messy, curly black hair, beautiful blue eyes and when he gives her his lopsided grin her heart does little flippy things in her chest. Oh boy!

"So what were you about to say?" Clark asks her, trying to get the conversation going again.

"Uh...I was about to say that my parents will love you if you...just...like...be yourself," she replies. _'Coward!' _some voice in the back of her head accuses.

Clark nods, oblivious to what his girlfriend was actually about to say. No-one has ever said Clark was good at reading women...because he ain't. Just ask Chloe. She's got a whole monologue over his denseness when it comes to the opposite sex.

"So, uh, Chloe," Jean addresses the blond girl before Clark can prove too deeply. "How are you getting on with trying to bring education to District X?" she wonders.

Chloe stirs in some milk to her coffee before taking a sip. "Incremental," she gives a one word response. It has become her focus now. Trying to help all the mutants who are excluded from mainstream education and don't want to be X-Men either. She finally decides to add a bit more. "The Professor is trying to arrange a meeting between the town council, District X leaders and relevant charity heads and NGOs and well Mr Kent is doing his best but they're are some annoyingly stubborn anti-mutants SOBs on that council. Could try at the State level I suppose...have to think on it," she muses as she heads back off.

Clark actually smiles. This is the Chloe he's missed. Ever since she became a mutant she's been a shadow of herself, lacking her passion but this cause she has taken up...well it's back. You can see the fire in her green eyes again. He almost feels sorry for the poor schmucks who get in her way.

"_In Washington today the President announced special funding granted to former US Sergeant John Henry Irons, aimed at building a purpose built facility to aid and attempt to restore Corporal John Corben, who remains in a coma after the armoured suit he was wearing was hijacked by the alien entity known as the Collector of Worlds..."_

"Oh hey, that's good news," Jean reflects.

"I suppose," Clark says, still feeling pretty awful he hadn't been able to do more for the man. Clark isn't sure he could have survived that battle without Corporal Corben's help. He guesses though that means the Corporal will soon be leaving them. He was still down in the lower levels, in his coma, completely unchanged and inert.

"How's Lois?" Jean wonders.

"Back in Metropolis, burying herself in her work. It's how she copes according to Chloe."

All the red haired telepath could do was nod.

"_In Syria the carnage of the Civil War continues as Government Forces and their Russian allies pound Rebel held areas in their ongoing offensive..."_

Carnage. That reminds Jean. "How's Kitty doing?" she wonders. Because of college she hasn't been able to be here anywhere near as much as she would have liked to for her friend.

Clark purses his lips, his expression grim. "Not good. The symbiote is getting stronger, growing larger within her."

"Larger?" Jean queries, her concern over her friend getting greater. She really must go see her later.

"It's gaining mass and weaving itself through more and more of her cellular structure. You should see her appetite lately. It's bigger than Kurt's or Amanda's. Plus she's having a really weird craving for chocolate. The Professor's mental prison is still working for the moment but..."

"But what?"

"She's started asking for a secure cell to be prepared for her down in the lower levels. I know the Professor doesn't want to do that...yet."

"But he'll have to soon won't he," Jean can guess.

Clark doesn't want to say it. In all honesty no-one around here does because it's Kitty. Sweet as apple pie Kitty. No-one really wants to imagine the awful truth that is coming towards them. Probably because they all feel so damn helpless. There is nothing they can do. It's up to the medical scientists amongst them to find some way to remove the symbiote without killing Kitty.

"How's Peter doing?" Jean asks about Kitty's significant other,

"He's a wreck. I don't think he's really sleeping at the minute. He's here as much as he can be so he can be by her side."

Well this is just awful, depressing news. Honestly Jean had no idea it had gotten this bad. Now she feels guilty she didn't know. She should have known. What kind of friend is she? A bad one apparently.

"The only possible upside I can give is that Yana believes Kitty can control it, control the darkness like she does. She's been trying to help Kitty, give advice, teach her."

Jean looks sceptical. Illyana...is hardly the most trustworthy person she knows...and she knows that's not a good way to think about a teammate but just look at Illyana's past behaviour. It doesn't inspire confidence. "What do you think?" she wonders. After all the person who knows Illyana best is her current beau.

"I believe in Yana. I believe there is a good person underneath all that darkness. I've told her this many times. That she has to believe that to be true. If I believe that for Yana then I have to believe the same for Kitty. That even if we can't remove the symbiote Kitty can control it."

Right now, Jean guesses, for the sake of her friend, she'll have to believe that as well.

Next to enter the kitchen is Storm who starts to make herself some herbal tea. It doesn't escape either Clark or Jean that their teacher seems...off.

"Are you feeling alright, Ms Munroe?" Jean asks first.

"Yeah," Clark joins in. "You are looking kinda...green."

Ororo manages a forced smile. "My stomach is a tad upset this morning. Perhaps something I ate."

"Or a 24hour bug," Clark offers as an alternative.

"All things are possible as Hank likes to say. I'm hoping some herbal tea will help settle my stomach."

As Ororo makes her tea and departs Clark and Jean start just idly talking about things in their lives.

"_In Honduras the government has announced a quarantine of an entire province as a new unknown disease spreads through the local population. Officials from the World Health Organisation have arrived to try and identify the new pathogen and to try and prevent it spreading outside the country..."_

In an instant Clark is gone from his chair. The next Jean spots him standing, remote in hand, the image on the tv frozen and Clark staring intently at it. She gets to her feet and stands next to him, trying to see whatever he is looking at. All she sees are health workers trying to aid people in some remote village. "What? What is it?"

"In the background. One of the health workers," Clark tells her.

Jean looks but still nope. "Sorry. I can't see..."

"It's Brainiac," Clark almost hisses the name in hate.

Jean blinks and looks again and this time she does spot the familiar figure of 'Milton Fine'. "What is he doing there?"

"I don't know but there must be a purpose," Clark reasons. Brainiac is a machine. It never does anything frivolous. Everything it does has a reason behind it. To accomplish its goals. "I need to get down there," he says, urgency in his voice.

"That's **we **Clark," Jean corrects him as in the X-Men, not just her.

Clark shakes his head. "You can't Jean. You heard the news. The entire place is quarantined. I can't get sick but you and anyone who comes with me is at risk of doing so."

"You could take Logan," she suggests. After all pretty much nothing can kill him. She's just not comfortable with Clark going off by himself. Not against a foe as powerful as her boyfriend himself is.

Clark gives her his best 'Are you kidding me?!' look. Who, in their right mind, volunteers to spend time with Logan? Apart from Storm obviously. Also, "Jean my whole strategy up to now has been to keep you guys out of Brainiac's cross-hairs as much as possible. Until I find a way to destroy all copies of it, wherever they are."

"How are you getting on with that?"

"I'm actually pretty close."

"Really?"

Clark nods. "I have it laid out in theory how it can be done. I just have to alter the Fortress' purge function, rewrite a heck of a lot of code and channel it through a physical receiver plunged into one of Brainiac's copies that will allow the purge to operate at distance."

"That's great, Clark," Jean praises her boyfriend, slightly amazed at just how brilliant he can be.

"Hmm, well yes, I suppose so but in the meantime I still need to keep an eye on what Brainiac is up to if I can," he points out because unchecked the level of destruction the Kryptonian AI could bring forth is almost unimaginable.

Jean moves forward and gives him a kiss. "Be careful," she says, her voice almost quivering with deep emotion.

"I promise," he says, giving her that lop-sided grin that makes her weak at the knees.

'_Love you.'_

No Clark didn't say it but he did actually think it. He pauses in his departure for a few seconds as it sinks in. Wow. Just...uh, ok did he really? Love her?

He looks down at her, his heart swelling at her mere presence...he needs to get going. He'll have to think on this later.

And with his usual _'whoosh!' _he's gone.

* * *

_Author's Note: So yeah, lots of things getting mentioned. I always planned to have an Oliver mention since the last time he was in the story was back in 'The Search for Magik' I wrote he was heading off to Starling City to have Arrow-esque adventures. And yes, you can assume Tess is still with him. Graham Garret is from the Smallville episode Fade. Thought I would drop him in as something Clark ran across. And Clark and Jean now trying to deal with the unspoken L-word. Both have reasons not to rush blurting it out to the other. Both have rather bruised hearts, though I guess Jean's should be more healed than Clark's is. Her break-up with Scott being much further back than Clark's with Illyana. Plus he has had to heal from Apocalypse. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Clark's trip to Honduras plus catching up with Kitty._

_AN1: Hope you're all staying safe from this damn virus._


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**At the Institute...**

After Clark left, Jean decided she was way past late going to check up on Kitty. She finds the phasing mutant in her room. Her friend is munching away on a bar of chocolate...a huge bar of chocolate. Well Clark did say she was having cravings for them.

"Hi Jean, what brings you here?"

Jean blinks. Kitty is sounding so...normal. For some reason she didn't expect that. "I didn't see you come down for breakfast and was wondering..."

Kitty cuts her off, "If I've gone off the deep end yet?"

"No!" Jean insists, mortified that her friend would ever think that. "But I did want to see how you were doing."

Kitty shrugs as she takes another bite of her chocolate bar and chews away as the delicious brown confectionery melts in her mouth. "Jean, I'm not that fragile you need to be afraid to ask. I don't know where people, like, get this impression of me," she says, sounding annoyed at the idea that people think she's some delicate wallflower as she licks some melted chocolate off her fingers.

"Ok, so, how are you doing?" Jean just goes ahead and asks it directly.

Kitty sighs. "Well I've stopped panicking and rocking back and forth in my bed if that counts as an improvement."

Jean smiles a tiny one at her friend's attempt at humour but like with Peter, Jean reckons Kitty is using it to try and cover her real feelings. "Clark mentioned Illyana's been helping you?"

Kitty nods. "Yeah. She's been giving me some advice. Problem is it only comes into practice if Carnage actually manages to re-emerge. Kinda hoping to avoid that still."

"Me too. Any progress on that front?"

"No," Kitty says, her tone sadder, more laced with worry.

"I'm sorry, Kitty. I wish there was more I could do."

"You did plenty Jean back when this first happened. Without you going into Osborn's mind I would have been Carnage all this time since then," Kitty points out, genuinely grateful for everything Jean did for her.

'_**Hmm, yeah, I have been meaning to get her back for that.'**_

"Shut up," Kitty says in a harsh whisper.

"What?" Jean asks, not quite hearing that.

"Nothing," Kitty replies, having no wish to discuss her inner voices with Jean.

Jean isn't sure she quite believes her friend for once...and that is so weird. Kitty is one of the most honest people she knows. "So where's Peter?" she asks, changing topics. "Clark said he's usually here."

"He usually is," Kitty confirms and a happy smile forms on her face at the thought of her boyfriend and how much he does to try and help her. "But I don't want him giving up his life for me so I told him to go home and visit his aunt and sister. You know, take a break."

Jean smiles. She can feel the love pour off her friend whenever she talks of Peter.

"But you know what that's enough talking about me. Lets talk about you," Kitty decides, looking for a distraction. "How are things with you and Clark?"

"Really, really great," is all Jean can say.

Kitty grins at her friend's expression. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," Jean confirms.

"Where is your other half?"

"Chasing a lead on Brainiac down in Honduras," the telepath answers honestly.

"Was there a time when saying stuff like that was strange?" Kitty asks in all seriousness.

Jean's eyes narrow as if she is trying to recall something from long ago. "Hmm, maybe. In the distant past. It's all getting fuzzy."

Kitty chuckles.

It warms Jean's heart a little that despite it all her friend can still laugh. "You know with Clark gone I'm kinda at a loose end. Want to hang out and do something?" she proposes.

"Sure. Why not," Kitty agrees. She could do with a distraction. "So, I have gotta ask, why haven't you introduced me to your AI friend yet? Because seriously, that's like my geek heaven."

And that sounds so like Kitty Jean can almost imagine her friend is not at risk at being taken over by a psychotic symbiote. The redhead can't do anything about removing it but at the very least, right now, she can he here for her friend.

* * *

**Honduras...**

Superman comes into land amongst the trees just shy of a village. Choosing to walk the last short distance his face goes sad as he starts to pass unburied bodies. It doesn't take much effort on his part to find that everyone here is dead.

Superman's brow starts to furrow though as he examines the bodies. They all have particular marks on them. Marks left behind by someone taking tissue samples.

It can't have been the official health workers though because surely they would have buried the bodies.

Something is wrong here.

His heart saddened he lifts back into the air. Brainiac is obviously not here. This is not the village he saw in the news footage. He'll have to keep looking.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

Charles is catching up with Lilandra over the phone. As much as they may want a closer relationship there was the obvious physical distance between Bayville and Smallville that is a barrier. Long distance relationships generally are never easy and they both lead busy lives but that is a conversation they've had already.

"Some days I cannot believe the stupidity of some people," Lilandra is complaining over the latest meteor rock related incident in Smallville. Somehow, despite the best efforts to clear the rocks up, people keep finding new stashes of them. Lilandra wishes she knew where.

"Well young people are oft foolish," Charles has to point out.

"I know...but injecting yourself with a meteor based serum to induce a near-death state? Seriously?! Did they watch Flatliners once too often?"

Charles smiles at Lilandra's exasperated tone.

"I mean I knew being Mayor would never be easy, especially since I barely won but I really underestimated just how weird this town can be. I don't know how Superman managed to keep a lid on it all before."

Charles nods. Yeah, since that time Wanda cast that spell erasing people's memories of Clark's superhuman-ness all people in Smallville can remember is that 'Superman' was responsible. Not even Lilandra knew the truth. Simply because it wasn't Charles' truth to tell. It was Clark's. "You're doing the best you can, Lilandra. It's all any of us can do," he tries to pep her up.

"They almost killed Lana Lang," she mutters.

Yes. As Lilandra had informed him Ms Lang had seemingly gone off the rails a bit since her freeing from Isobel's ghostly possession but in one way it's not completely surprising. To wake up and be told 18 months of your life have passed you by because the spirit of a sorceress had taken your body over. To find, inevitably, that everyone else in your life had moved on and you feel left behind and lost. Turning to something like this...it happens as much as one may not wish it to. "How is she doing?"

"Physically she'll recover. Emotionally...that remains to be seen. She wanted to see her parents. That's why she did it."

Like Charles was thinking. She's lost and trying to reach the people she loves the most; her parents. It's just, sadly, they're dead.

"While I hate to be all business I do think we need to discuss this metahuman/mutant debate that is brewing."

Charles rubs his brow. Yes, that argument was growing. What was a mutant? Was it solely someone in possession of the x-gene? In that case what about non-x-gene super-powered people? What were they? Hence this new label of 'Metahuman'. Charles fear is that it is an attempt to turn a fairly minor difference into a reason to divide people.

For him personally he would never turn away anyone who needed his help solely because they didn't possess an x-gene but that's him. Sadly there are many people in this world who do not share his beliefs. In that case he better start preparing for another fight for equality.

* * *

**Honduras...**

Clark has been systematically flying over the area and everywhere he goes it's the same scene. One of death. This is far worse that what they were saying on the news.

Unfortunately so far he has found no trace of his AI nemesis nor any hint as to why Brainiac would be down here.

But what he has found is a seemingly orphaned boy wandering alone. Clark's heart bleeds for him but his eyes catches that in the boy's hands is a wooden toy shaped very like the Black Ship. After taking a few minutes to earn the boy's trust he gets led through the jungle to where the boy says he saw it.

Upon arrival there is no ship...but there is a scorch mark on the ground exactly matching the shape. It was here...recently.

But that leaves Clark with the overriding question.

Why?

He wanders the shape until…

_CRUNCH!_

He stands on something.

Bending down he spots it is glass. Having his mind try and work out the shape, perhaps some kind of sample container.

And on the glass is a mark. It's the name of the company that manufactured it.

Clark picks up the piece and his eyes narrow.

This...this raises more questions than he arrived here with.

It's going to be one of _those _days.

* * *

**Later at the Institute…**

"You requested to see me Clark?" the Professor queries as he rolls into the room down in the lower levels Clark uses to do all his research. Charles takes a moment to scan the walls with bits of paper and pictures all stuck up and at least 3 different laptops on the go.

"Yes. One moment," he requests from his spot at the table.

Charles waits and observes. Clark is bent over what appears to be a map making marks on it. "Prefer analogue to digital I see," he obverses.

"Hmm?" Clark asks, looking up with a slight frown

"Working on paper," Charles elaborates, instead of on computer.

Clark grins lopsidedly. "I like the tactile feel of paper," he explains.

"Yes, it does have its appeal to me as well," Charles shares a commonality he and Clark have. "So what is it you needed to see me about Clark?" he returns to that.

The young alien picks up his map and walks over to the Professor as he explains what all the marks are. "I was down in Honduras looking for Brainiac. These marks are villages and towns afflicted by this new disease running rampant and here," Clark draws a small version of the ship in black ink, "is where I found a scorch mark that had to have been left by the Black Ship. Notice anything?"

Charles does indeed. "It's at the direct centre of this outbreak."

"Yep."

"You think Brainiac caused this disease," Charles thinks.

"It's too much of a coincidence," is Clark's response. "Also on many of the bodies I found marks where tissue samples had been taken."

"Brainiac assessing the effect of the disease on the human body?"

"I guess," Clark agrees with that.

"Why?"

Clark makes a strained face. "To be honest I'm not sure. I can speculate on a few reasons but since I believe the endgame is to turn Earth into a New Krypton it seems a waste of time and effort. The transformation would do in most of the human race. Creating a new incurable disease seems like overkill...or to think more machine-like inefficient."

"So we don't really understand why," Charles can say.

"No," Clark huffs slightly. "But Brainiac may have miscalculated."

"In what way?"

"While I was down there I found an orphaned boy alive and well and there was no way he hadn't been exposed."

"He possesses a natural immunity," Charles gets what Clark is suggesting.

"I dropped him with some of the health workers and made that very point. Hopefully it helps in finding a cure or vaccine. Failing that we could always expose Logan," he jokes.

Charles smiles wryly. "Well it's an option," he joins on on the joke.

Clark sobers. "I, uh, also found...well I don't know the significance but I think it's something we need to look into but it's kinda delicate because of a certain someone."

Charles blinks. "You'll need to elaborate on that, Clark."

"At the site where the ship had been I accidentally stood on something made of glass and when I examined it I found a familiar logo on it," Clark tells the story as he goes and retrieves what it was he found. He returns to the Professor with the glass shard in a plastic bag. "Look familiar?"

Charles reads the logo. "Frost Industries," he says, his tone solemn. Now he understands the 'delicate' bit. Scott.

Question is what is Emma's involvement in all of this?

* * *

**New York...**

"Have a good long look down there, Scott and you know what you see?" Emma asks her once again boyfriend...even if they have never officially admitted they're a couple again.

"Why don't you tell me Emma," is the monotone reply.

It's all Emma can do to not roll her eyes. "You see all those scientists, Scott. They're currently working on identifying that new disease from the outbreak in Honduras. Once they have identified it, mapped its genome they will begin the task of finding both a cure and a vaccine. Now tell me am I 'pure evil' if I'm doing something like that?"

"I never said you were 'pure evil', Emma," Scott dismisses that. He was in a Frost Industries facility in New York at her request and down below where he stood, he watched through glass at scientists working away.

"Yet I can still sense your lack of trust in me," Emma points out and this is the crux of her invite to the red shades wearing young man. She was trying to earn back his trust.

"I'm here aren't I? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt," is his reply, though his tone is bordering on the acerbic.

There are moments, like this, when Emma wonders what it is that made her fall in love with the moron. Damn this weak heart of hers. "My point is Scott that you still have a lingering negative view of me because of what happened when I was a member of the Hellfire Club. I will admit that some of my choices could be seen by others as less than...moral but in all honesty morals are subjective. I was simply trying to do what I thought best for our species and use the power and influence of the Inner Circle to do so. Unfortunately things did not pan out as I had hoped."

"Careful there Emma, you almost admitted you made a mistake."

"Hell will freeze over first."

"That I believe," Scott says with a shake of his head.

"You want to see who I am, see what I do and learn to trust me then here we are," Emma says, gesturing around them.

"And what about your school? And your students? That still a thing?"

"I'm having to rebuild the school at the minute," she informs him after it was demolished during that last confrontation with Selene. "My students are using temporary facilities and the answer to your question is yes, it's still a 'thing'. I happen to like teaching and last I checked Charles does not have a monopoly on the concept."

"Never said the Professor did."

"That's true, I'll grant you," she concedes. "The bottom line here Scott is that I am essentially on my own now. Selene controls the Hellfire Club now. I'm having to forge a new path not only without them but in all likelihood in opposition to them. That is making me have to...reassess my priorities."

Scott can't help but note how she looks...vulnerable. It's never a word he'd ever thought he'd use to describe Emma. She usually hides behind this immaculate mask of arrogance. Many people would basically call her a rich snob and yeah she can come off as that but Scott knows her better than most people. He places a hand on her shoulder. "You're not on your own," he tells her truthfully.

Emma's lips curve up into a smile...an actually genuine one and not one of her fake ones. Scott is just about the only person on Earth who gets to see this smile. Perhaps the only other person was her late brother, Christian. She leans forward and her lips meet his in a soft kiss.

Unknown to both, watching from afar is the Kryptonian Artificial Intelligence known as the Brain Interactive Construct. It cares nothing for these emotional attachments humans have beyond the way it can use them to manipulate people. Its partnership with Emma Frost is simply part of the plan to release Zod.

It has even tolerated using these primitive so-called scientists to manufacture what it requires. It told Emma that what is being created will allow her and her students to survive what comes after Zod is released. What it is actually for...well that would spoil the surprise.

* * *

_In the centre of a dark space stands a cage._

_And inside the cage appears to be a figure resembling Kitty Pryde...but look closer and you'll discover who...what stands there is not our Illinois resident. This Kitty's eyes are blood red and her clothes; shirt, pants and jacket are a never shifting pattern of red and black._

_Her hands reach up and grab the bars before she literally rattles her cage._

_She smirks darkly. "You know this isn't going to hold me forever Katherine," she speaks out. "And you know why? Because you don't want it to," she accuses her literal other half. _

"_I know who you are deep down. I know when we were one you loved the thrill of our power. You loved indulging in our darker impulses. You stand there and deny it but you are no different to anyone else. You have a darkness Katherine just like everyone else. You crave to indulge it. You crave me."_

_She leans against the bars, folding her arms across her chest, a surprisingly cheery smile on her face considering her confinement. "It's only a matter of time you know. Until you stand in front of this cage and beg me...**beg me!...**for us to become one again. To be whole again. Because that is the truth. Apart we are incomplete, broken halves of one being. How long can anyone live as only half of themselves, hmm?"_

_She takes a second as she appears to check her nails before glancing around outside her cage. "I know you can hear me, Katherine. Ol Baldy couldn't silence me for long. Every day I'm getting stronger. Every day I weave myself deeper and deeper into your **soul," **she says that last word with an echoing bass._

"_And you know why I can do that? Because, it's like I said at the start, you want it to be so. You want us to be whole and complete again."_

_Her gaze then looks straight at something. "Isn't that right?"_

_And there, on the other side of the door is Kitty, her face torn in conflict, her hands reaching for the lock._

_Kitty's Other's face splits into a grin of anticipation. "That's it Katherine. Just open the door and you will know joy and ecstasy once again. All your doubts and inner conflicts will be over," she tempts her other half._

_And just as Kitty is about to reach the lock… "NO!" she screams as she realises what she is about to do and stumbles back._

_The Other pouts and snaps her fingers in disappointment. "Aw poo! So close."_

"_I-I won't," Kitty says but her voice lacks strength._

"_**You will!" **the Other roars pressing right up against the bars, her voice changing into the voice of two speaking as one. **"Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock...it's only a matter of time."**_

"_I'll never let you out! I'll never let you hurt anyone!" Kitty cries forcefully._

"_**Lies. Nothing but lies. That's what you tell your friends, the Professor, even our lover boy. You tell them you're revolted by me...by us but none of it is true. I can feel you lusting for me."**_

"_That's a lie!"_

"_**It's funny isn't it. The Professor teaches for mutants to embrace their gifts. Embrace who they really are yet here you are trying everything in your power to run away from the truth! From your true self!"**_

"_You're not me! You're just a parasite!"_

"_**Flattery will get you everywhere!" **she growls lustfully._

"_Go to hell!" Kitty spits out furiously before she turns on her heels and storms away._

_Her Other shouts after her. **"You can't run away from the truth Katherine! You can't run away from me! You know you want us to be one again! We're two halves of one soul and we will be one again! We will be whole again! We will be what we were suppose to be! Now and forever! WE...ARE...CARNAGE!"**_

* * *

_Author's Note: So the 'Flatliners' bit comes from the season 5 episode Void as does Clark's trip down to Honduras. And Kitty cannot escape her fate, no matter how much she wants to...if she even wants to. The Last Temptation of Kitty Pryde. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; a little filler chapter to bridge to the main event._

_AN1: Hope you all are keeping safe from the virus._


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**A few weeks later...**

"So tell me about this dream?" Illyana asks Kitty as she takes a bite out of a chocolate dohnut. They were in the demon-sorceress' room, Illyana continuing her attempts to prepare Kitty for the inevitable day(and it is inevitable in the Russian girl's opinion) that Carnage returns. It was actually really early in the morning. Kitty didn't tend to sleep all that much because of the very dreams Illyana is asking about.

Kitty's eyes now carry a weight that would have previously been unimaginable for the peppy girl only 6 months ago. "It's the same one I've been having for awhile. There's a cage in the middle of this dark space and _she _is there, locked up, trying to tempt me into releasing _her."_

Illyana nods along. "Are you? Tempted?"

"No!"

Illyana can spot a liar a mile away and Kitty is a poor one. Especially when the brown-haired girl won't look her in the eye when she says that. "The darkness is seductive. It lures you in with promises that you need only touch it, sample it, just to experience it and if you don't like it then you can walk away...but the truth is it's a trap. You can't just touch it because once you do it consumes you completely. Yes, you can learn to control it but you will never be rid of it. It will be apart of you the rest of your life. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny."

Kitty gives Illyana a queer look.

"What?"

"Since when did you watch Star Wars?" she asks, knowing where that last lien came from.

Illyana smirks as she finishes off her dohnut.

"Is-is that what happened to you?" Kitty asks, having never asked it before.

"It's a simplified version of the story but yes. My temptation, though, was driven by hatred and the desire for revenge. To seek the power to destroy those that had abducted me. I was warned there would be a price but at that moment I didn't care. My mistake. One I hope you will avoid."

"I-I'm not sure I can," Kitty stutters.

"Because you are tempted aren't you."

Kitty nods, looking sad and ashamed of herself.

"Why? What is it about being Carnage that is tempting?"

Kitty's brow furrows. "I don't know," she whispers. "It shouldn't be. What _she _thinks like is horrid. The horrible things _she _wants to do..." Kitty shudders in revulsion.

"Sounds like the way I think," Illyana admits...and the more time she has spent with Kitty, the more similar she has found them to be.

"The way you think?" Kitty queries.

"I'm part demon Kitty. That part wants to do horrible things to you."

"But you don't."

"Because I control it. It does not control me."

"That's what I want."

"And I want to help you but to help you you have to be honest with me. What is it that is tempting about Carnage?"

Kitty rubs her face. She takes several minutes trying to formulate an answer. "I...think it started during the fight against Apocalypse. When Clark had been transformed into War. I went to fight him."

"Yeah, that was dumb," Illyana lays down the insult as she swigs down some coke, followed by a loud _BURP!_

"How was that dumb? Apocalypse needed to be stopped," the Illinois native argues, insulted.

"Because you were really no match for Clark in that state. Surely you knew that?"

Kitty shakes her head. "Didn't matter. We had to try when the alternative, of Apocalypse succeeding, was a nightmare."

Illyana rolls her eyes. She's not a hero, no matter what Clark might argue otherwise. Heroes are dumb. "Ok, fine you had to stop Clark. Go on," she tells Kitty to continue.

"Well in one sense you were right. We were losing to him so in desperation I used these x-gene enhancers we got from Magneto. It allowed me to sort of reverse my power. Make my body denser, stronger. It was an incredible rush."

"Ah," the blond Russian says, beginning to understand. "And when you're Carnage you feel this same rush?"

Kitty nods, confirming it.

"Is that all? Is it just the rush, the high of power?"

"No. Afterwards I...um, started to secretly train so I could practise on replicating what I did without the enhancers. Late at night."

Illyana cocks an eyebrow. Interesting. "Why in secret?" she wonders. That seems odd considering where they live.

There is a silence as Kitty mulls over her response. "Ages ago myself, Jean, Rogue, Tabby and Amara got it into our heads to go on a vigilante kick. The Bayville Sirens we got called. It was a dumb mistake. We were doing it for all the wrong reasons. But then I met Peter and I don't know if you're aware he does kinda get himself into scrapes he barely gets out of."

"And you decided you wanted to help him," Illyana can deduce.

"Yeah," Kitty confirms. "Though somehow I've never got around to it. Course it went completely out of my head after I got bonded to the symbiote."

"Not quite I'm thinking," Illyana suggests. "That's another reason you're tempted. If you can control it you think you can help Peter."

Kitty runs her left arm. "Maybe. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it...but I shouldn't be thinking that. Not ever," she argues.

"Kitty you do have darkness within you. Everyone does. For you it's a hell of lot lesser than most people."

"Was lesser. Now I can feel it all the time, slithering away inside me," she says with a barely repressed shudder.

"The symbiote gave it a medium to inhabit."

"That's your area of expertise not mine."

"Perhaps. Dohnut?" Illyana offers Kitty one from the box.

"Thanks," Kitty says, needing to assuage her ever growing appetite. "So how do you do it? Control your darkness?" she asks, wanting to learn.

"By acknowledging it. Denying it exists only gives it strength. What you must realise is that your darkness is only as strong as you allow it to be. You never allowed it to control you before the symbiote and you can do the same now. You can choose to resist the temptations it offers and instead harness it to make yourself stronger."

"And are you? Stronger?"

"I'm a Hell Lord, Kitty, what do you think?" the blond girl asks rhetorically.

"I have no idea what that means."

"Ok, let me put it another way. I was trained to be the weapon to kill Clark...and believe you me I can do so. In fact I basically did until I chose to heal him."

Kitty swallows down a bite of her dohnut. "You talk about choice but you see the thing is, for me, I have none. Sooner or later Carnage will re-emerge and Kitty Pryde, this one sitting here with you, will be gone, subsumed into something else."

"We've had this discussion," Illyana points out. "As I said to you before I'm no longer the Illyana Rasputin that was taken to Limbo."

"Great, so we're going in circles," Kitty gripes. "How is this helping me again?"

"It's inevitable. Lets take that as a given. That being the case you need it to happen on your terms, not 'hers'. You release 'her' because it is your choice not because you give in to 'her' temptations."

"I don't want to release her!" Kitty says from between gritted teeth. "I want her gone!"

Illyana remains calm. "As you said, right now, that's not an option. As I said it's about control. Take control and do it on your terms. That is the only way you'll keep intact the core of what makes you, you."

"What is it you are wanting me to do?" Kitty has to ask because she's not sure she understands.

"You don't wait for 'her' to subsume you. You subsume 'her'."

"I don't know how to do that!"

"I'll teach you but it must be what you want. Anything less than 100% commitment on your part and you will fail and that is the problem right now. You don't want it. You're afraid. There must be no fear. You must know beforehand that you will succeed."

"I don't know if I can do that," Kitty severely doubts herself.

Illyana sighs and gazes at her friend with a touch of sadness. "In an ideal world, Kitty we would not be here, having this discussion but the world is a far from ideal place. You must deal with reality. It doesn't have to be today or tomorrow but time is not something you have an infinite amount of. You can wait and hope Beast and the Professor or whoever come up with a way to remove the symbiote or you embrace what I have to teach you and confront 'her' head-on."

"I don't know," Kitty utters with a weak voice.

"Like I said, not today or tomorrow but soon Kitty. You must make a choice."

Deep down in her gut Kitty knows Illyana speaks the truth but she is afraid. So afraid. Afraid she'll fail and then what? She'll become the monster again. God, what is suppose to do?

* * *

Jean wakes up to find herself snuggled up against her boyfriend's large, warm frame...floating a foot or two above the bed with only a sheet covering their otherwise bare bodies.

Not the first time she's woken up like this. She thinks Clark barely even realises he does it because it's not her floating them that's for sure.

Jean lets out a small contented sigh and snuggles in deeper to Clark's chest. She finds she could easily imagine being very happy for a long time waking up like this. In fact the times she wakes up alone now she finds herself almost aching for Clark's company.

There is no doubt about it. She's madly, deeply in love with him. Not that she's said it to him.

Why not?

Good question.

She has doubts. Doubts whether they're ready. Doubts over whether she's ready to open her heart again. Doubts over whether Clark is ready. He's better. Since they became a couple she can say she has seen a marked improvement in his demeanour. The old Clark, the one before Apocalypse, comes through a little more every day but is he ready for that level of commitment?

Maybe she's overthinking this. It's been known to happen. Perhaps all that she is waiting for is the right moment to say it.

"I can almost hear you thinking you know," her boyfriend's deep voice says.

Jean peers up at his face, him looking down at her with deep affection in his mesmerising blue eyes. Of course that is the other reason she loves snuggling into Clark. When they're in physical contact their minds connect. As a telepath it's what her mind naturally does. Not that she can read his mind any differently or deeper than when this new ability first emerged. She can't but she has been been able to get the experience of all the different colours and temperatures of his emotions. It's kinda fascinating the scientist in her has to confess. "No. You can't," she retorts playfully. Like with her for him Clark can't actually read her thoughts either. From their conversations he senses her mind very like the way she senses his.

Clark starts idly drawing symbols at the small of Jean's back, making her shiver slightly. He's too good at that, Jean thinks. Especially since, thanks to his stamina, she's still pretty worn out from last night's activities.

"Clark."

"Yes Jean?"

"If you continue doing that I'm going to be a useless wreck all day," she points out because if he continues to do that then her resistance to the idea will last about a minute and what follows will probably last at least an hour...maybe two.

"I'm not seeing this as a strong argument for stopping," he retorts, the 'bad boy' smirk breaking through in all its glory as his hands move towards more daring places and Jean cannot stop the moans escaping her lips.

Damn him!

"Clark...Clark...oh Goodddd," she moans out as his fingers reach the sweet spot. "Bed...need to be on the bed," she says in a desperate, hoarse voice.

"Nah. I'm for trying something new," he says as he claims her lips with his.

Jean realises he means he wants to do this floating. Ok, why the hell not. It's not like she's in any position to protest as their bodies begin to wrap around each other in the air, their passions increasing as the two lovers prepare for that ultimate joining...

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

The young couple stop. That was the door.

"Clark! Jean!"

"It's Scott," Clark says with disbelief in his voice.

"It's 5am!" Jean barely stops herself shrieking as she catches glimpse of her alarm clock...below her.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

"I'm not leaving! I need to talk to you! Now!"

"He has got to be freakin kidding me!" Clark grumbles as he lowers himself and his gorgeous lover down to the bed. To say he was now in a foul mood was the understatement of all understatements. The words balls and blue comes to mind.

"I'm going to fry his brain and make it bleed from his ears," Jean hisses as the two find something to wear. She cannot believe her ex's timing. Does he have any idea how turned on and frustrated she is right now? She really might carry out that threat if he does not have a really, really, really good excuse.

Jean throws on her robe while Clark, in that time, has easily got himself completely dressed.

Jean stomps over to the door since this is her room. Because Clark shares with Bart he always has to come here for their private time. She unlocks the door and flings it open, glaring at her ex-boyfriend standing on the other side. "This better be really good Scott," she warns him, her tone extremely dangerous.

Scott does not, somehow, seem to notice her tone. Instead his focus turns instantly to her alien boyfriend and he does not look happy. In fact the senior X-Man is looking fairly pissed. "You've been investigating Emma. You think she is working with Brainiac," he accuses Clark.

Clark is taken aback because he has kept that an almost complete secret apart from a couple of people. "What..." he starts to say but is cut off by an irate Scott.

"Don't bother denying it. I've been down in your little _research _room," he says snidely.

Clark's eyebrows draw together. "Which I locked," he recalls.

Jean gets the implication. "Scott, did you break in?" she asks, barely able to believe it.

He literally waves her off. "What gives you the right to accuse..." this time Clark does the cutting off.

"I'm not accusing anyone," he says sternly and the shy, friendly farmboy is being rapidly replaced by the powerful alien. "I'm investigating a lead," he corrects his friend(though he's using that term loosely right this second). "There is a strong possibility Brainiac is behind this disease outbreak and if you've been snooping through my research then you know I found Frost Industries related paraphernalia in the area."

"Because Emma's been working on a cure."

"How do you know that?" Jean asks her ex.

"Because she told me."

The redhead scoffs. "She told you? Yeah, right, like anything that woman says can be trusted."

"And you're so unbiased?" Scott accuses her and then glances in Clark's direction to imply what he is referring to.

Jean's face darkens. "You seem to have forgotten Scott that I was here at the same time as Emma was. I know her and that is before we even include her numerous Hellfire Club related antics with us."

"She regrets that."

Jean lets out a hollow laugh. "Emma? Regret? That'll be the day!" she mocks even the mere idea that Emma Frost regrets one damn thing she does.

"You don't know her," Scott accuses.

"And you're blinkered when it comes to her. Always have been," she accuses right back.

The exes glare at each other. Remember that basically the cause of her and Scott's break-up was Emma. It was this very issue. Scott giving her a benefit of the doubt the blond never deserves. At least in Jean's opinion while Scott thought Jean was blinkered by an irrational dislike of his current beau.

Why does Clark suddenly feel like a 3rd wheel in what should be his and Jean's relationship? Time to interrupt. "Scott, I'll answer any question you want if you will return me the favour," he proposes.

Scott turns his gaze away from Jean and to his friend(though he is using that term loosely right this second). "What do you mean?"

"Answer me a question."

"What question?"

"Who told you I was investigating Emma?"

Jean looks at her boyfriend curiously. "Clark, what?"

"He broke in to my research room. The only explanation I can think of as to why is that someone told him what I was doing or at least a twisted version of it and he broke in to confirm whether it was true or not."

Jean blinks as she realises Clark's explanation makes total sense. "Is that true? Did someone tell you?" she asks.

"Doesn't matter," Scott says defensively.

"It is true!" Jean gets because she can read Scott. Doesn't even need her telepathy to do it. "Who, Scott?" she demands to know, her green eyes narrowing, the temptation to just rip it from his mind growing within her.

His face grow sour and he tries to get himself off the defensive on something he doesn't want to talk about by going on the offensive. "If you have accusations to make, make them to Emma's face. Not through some sneaky, cowardly, secret investigation!"

Clark remains calm and folds his arms across his chest in that imposing manner of his, where he straightens right up and somehow looks suddenly a couple of inches taller than he is. "Again I'm not making any accusations against anyone. I'm following leads. It's what a reporter does. The only one here making accusations is you."

"I know what I saw."

"Did you? Or did you see only what you wanted to see that fit the accusation against me? And really Scott when did our friendship go this wrong that you aren't willing to give me any benefit of the doubt? You didn't come here and ask me what was going on. You just accused me. You never came here willing to hear any explanation I could have given. You just wanted me to confirm your accusations but I won't because it's not true."

"There's your boyfriend," Scott says to Jean in accusatory tones. "Won't even admit the truth. I hope you're happy," he says in snide, sarcastic tones before storming off.

"I cannot believe him!" Jean cries in astonishment as she slams the door shut. She cannot believe that was Scott at all. It was unlike the man she thought she knew.

Clark shakes his head sadly, rubbing the spot between his eyes.

Jean looks at her boyfriend's distraught expression and moves to rub his arm sympathetically. "You alright?" she asks him.

"That was to be my question for you."

"I wasn't the one having unfounded accusations thrown at them."

"No but Scott is one of your oldest friends."

Jean feels warmth spread in her chest. He's so supportive even when he shouldn't be. "I'll deal with it but seriously are you ok?"

"Just sad...and confused by where that came from all of a sudden."

"I have no idea," she says, feeling the same as Clark. "But can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," he permits her.

"Why haven't you confronted Emma? Just out of curiosity."

"Because I have no hard facts to link her to Brainiac and if I confronted her it would A, tip her off. B, the lack of hard facts would make it easy for her to deny which leads to C, it gives her the advantage."

Jean nods. Logical...and smart. God, Clark is so smart...which she finds ridiculously sexy by the way.

"And D, it could be a coincidence. The fact her company is in Honduras at the same time and place as Brainiac was. I can't rule it out. However, maybe I've gotten cynical but Emma is no friend of ours and neither is Brainiac and perhaps it is just too much of a coincidence."

Jean has to err on agreeing. "But what could she possibly gain from being in alliance with Brainiac?" she asks, unable to figure it out, if that is what is happening here.

"I don't know. Assuming there is an alliance I can only think it has promised her something but it'll never give her what she thinks has been promised. Its only goal is freeing Zod and the consequences that follow...Emma can't understand what she has gotten involved with."

"I hope you're right," Jean says because the alternative is that Emma is an even worse person than the red-head already pegged her as.

"What I really want to know right now though is who tipped off Scott as to what I was doing," Clark says, stroking his chin slightly. The people who know about his investigation wouldn't he believes which leaves someone else. An unknown someone and from recent experience an unknown x-factor is always, always bad.

* * *

_Author's Note: Ok this is just a transition chapter as we move on. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Brainiac's plans come to fruition in Graduation._

_AN1: Hope you all are keeping safe._


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**Fortress of Solitude...**

A knot of concentration forms on Clark's brow as he stands in the midst of the holographic interface writing and rewriting code. Does he know for certain he can get this to work and destroy Brainiac?

Not at all.

Far too much of it is guess work but without Jor-El...the real, actual original program and not the version Apocalypse corrupted Clark's been on his own. Trying to learn and understand a technology he thinks would have taken him years to understand even if he had been living and learning on Krypton itself.

He pauses briefly. He's thought about that on occasion. What if Krypton hadn't been destroyed? What if he grew up there with his biological parents? What sort of person would he have been?

He believes they are natural questions to ask. Heck he's even imagined just what a sunrise on Krypton would have looked like. Just to have seen it once...what would he give?

To meet just one decent Kryptonian, to know what his people were actually like, what would he give?

Yeah, he better stop that train of thought. That only makes him sad.

Just like his now, currently non-friendship with Scott. He still hasn't found out who tipped the shades wearing mutant off about his investigation. And Scott was pulling, to quote Jean, 'some passive-aggressive bullshit'.

Clark's eyebrows had noticeably risen when she said that because he had never pegged Jean for one who swore. He's not sure he's ever heard her swear...outside certain bedroom _activities_ that is.

Basically Scott is just not talking to either of them. When they walk into a room he walks out...usually making a snide non-accusation as he goes.

It's not like Clark hasn't tried to reach out. He has but Scott doesn't want to hear it so what can he do? He's past the stage of forcibly locking people in rooms to sort out their problems(See Rogue and Wanda he did that to). Though he's not certain if that was due to Apocalypse's bad influence or it really was him.

He shrugs. Meh. That was one of the milder things he did. There are other things he did he still hasn't told anyone about. He might never in all honesty. It's his shame to live with.

Clark gets back to work...and oh? Oh! Wait. Is that it? Is he finished?

Excitement runs through him as he quickly double checks his work. He thinks it's right. Should run a simulation or two just to make sure.

Just then his watch alarm starts beeping.

Crap.

It's morning back in Bayville and he needs to get back. He'll run those simulations later. After all his parents will kill him if he's late for his own Graduation.

* * *

**Boston, Massachusetts...**

Scott lay on his back staring at the ceiling. Emma was asleep beside him. A relationship he knew few, if any, of his friends approved of.

But they don't know Emma. The real Emma. The one he got to know all those years ago when she was at the Institute.

There is far more to her than she ever lets anyone see.

He believes that there is no reason they have to continue this antagonistic relationship that exists between them. Between the Institute and Emma's Academy.

There shouldn't be. They want the same things don't they?

A better world for mutants.

And maybe that is one reason he has pursued this relationship. To reach Emma and help bridge the gap.

He frowns. That sounds clinical even for him. Not to even touch on the emotions Emma stirs within him.

The physical attraction goes without saying. Emma is gorgeous.

And since they restarted this she has seemed to make a genuine effort to let him into her world...but has she let him into her heart? Has she?

He can't answer that question because unlike her he's not psychic.

He glances over at her and has to smile wryly. Emma sleeps in the weirdest positions and angles. How she doesn't get cramps he'll never know.

But look, yeah Emma can be sarcastic and aloof...and ok a bit of a snob but there is a selfless person under all that. He knows there is. If he can just find that girl he use to know. It's not like he has many other options after Jean…

Scott pinches the bridge of his nose. He is seriously not thinking about Jean when lying in bed with Emma.

Good God.

That's it. He's getting up before he ends up in a sour mood over thinking about Jean taking Clark's side on his totally unjust investigation into Emma. You would think his and Jean's many years of friendship would count for something. Guess not.

Scott pads his way through Emma's house on bare feet towards the kitchen. He's going to get a glass of water. Getting a glass he runs the tap and half fills it.

After taking a few sips he pours the rest away, turns around and…

"Good morning, Mr Summers. Sleep well?"

And finds himself face to face with, "Brainiac."

"How gratifying to know Kal-El mentions me," the machine lifeform says flatly.

"What are you doing here?"

"Let just say you really should have listened to your friend."

Scott's eyes widen under his shades. "Y-you...Emma..." he stammers, not wishing to believe it. All these weeks.

Brainiac cocks its head to the side and smirks. "To use a phrase, Mr Summers; we're in the endgame now."

Scott's hand reaches for his shades but it's far too late and he finds himself slammed face down on the kitchen island. Next thing he knows is the feeling of a needle being stuck in his neck and something being injected into his veins.

Burning pain begins to spread through Scott as he coughs. "W-what...d-did...y-you..."

"Stage 1 of your preparation," Brainiac replies.

Scott begins to sag and collapse down to the floor. "P-prepartion?"

"You'll find out soon enough. As I was taught from the greatest general who has ever lived one never gives away their plans ahead of time...which, by the way, is why you'll never remember this," Brainiac tells Scott as the young mutant falls down to the floor unconscious.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

"Could you stop looking at me like that?" the flame-haired pyrokinetic known as Claire Selton complains at her girlfriend as she gets ready for her big day up in her room.

Marie-Angle Colbert grins unapologetically. "But how can I? Today's the day you graduate. Look at you. You're all grown up," she teases.

Claire rolls her orange eyes. She loves Marie but sometimes, like right now, she wonders why. "Just you wait until next year," she mutters in a half-threat. That is when Marie will graduate and then she'll get her payback. Revenge is a dish best served cold and all that...and yes for her, that is indeed, ironic.

"Je ne peux pas attendre." Can't wait.

"Je te deteste." I hate you.

Marie smiles bigger and comes up behind her girlfriend. "Non, non," she denies as she moves the red hair aside and her lips descend onto Claire's neck.

"Marie," the pyrokinetic groans because they've been together long enough now for Marie to have learned all her sensitive spots.

"Oui, mon amour?" Yes, my love?

"I...my parents will...oh Gooddd!" she moans helplessly at her girlfriend's ministrations.

Marie can't help but smile wickedly.

* * *

"Ah nevah thought ah'd see this day," Rogue is commenting as she finishes off her breakfast down in the kitchen.

"Vhy?" her brother asks in confusion. He was looking forward to it. Siblings graduating together.

Rogue gives him an 'Are you kidding me?' look. "Aftah last year, Kurt. Remembah," she encourages him to do so.

Kurt's eyes widen slightly. "Oh zhat!" he recalls. Recalls Rogue being under Apocalypse's influence and the chaos she caused.

"Yes. That."

"Yeah, zhat vas pretty memorable," the blue-furred elf says with a nostalgic grin.

"Is that what we're calling it," Rogue drawls.

"Vell ozher people might have other vords. Stronger vords. Vones not to used in polite conversation."

"Dom?" the southern belle guesses.

Kurt nods.

Rogue rolls her eyes at her sister's antics. "Still ya have ya admit they could have easily refused ta evah let meh back."

"But zhey didn't," Kurt points out, not seeing the point in dwelling on what didn't happen. "Come on sis, just enjoy it. You only get to experience zhis vonce."

"Kurt, ah've said it before and ah'll say it again. Ya are tha annoying little brothah ah nevah wanted."

"How can you say zhat to zhis face?" Kurt asks, pointing at his own face, mock pouting.

Rogue rolls her green eyes in response.

* * *

"So I really, really, really, really..."

"Peter," Kitty cuts him off with a fond shake of her head. The two were actually sitting on the steps outside the front door. Lockheed was perched on Kitty's shoulders.

Peter clears his throat. "As I was saying I don't want to come off like I'm suffocating you or being over-protective or anything but are you sure you're up to this?" he asks in obvious concern.

Kitty scratches Lockheed's chin. "Right now Pete, I have to live for today for I don't know what tomorrow will bring but my Graduation...it might be the last _normal_ thing I get to do for awhile."

Peter hates this. So, so much. He loves her so much and the fact he can't do anything to help her...he hasn't felt this helpless since he lost his Uncle. He wraps his arm around her slim waist and kisses her cheek. If she wants one normal day then Peter will ensure to make it the best normal day possible. "I love you."

"I know," she says with a smirk. Cause you know; Star Wars.

"_**Yes, enjoy your day Katherine but tomorrow will be a greater day. For tomorrow we will bring beautiful Carnage to this world."**_

Kitty screws her eyes shut tight and tries to ignore _her..._even if that, in reality, is no longer possible. The cage is weakening. Her resolve, her will to resist, is weakening but not today. Today she'll enjoy her day as if it is her last.

"_**For it is your last."**_

* * *

**Bayville High...**

So as is the yearly tradition the football fields have been converted to host the Graduation Ceremony. And a certain weather manipulating mutant has once again ensured there is good weather. Although if you ask her about it she'll tell you that this year there was actually very little intervention needed on her part.

This was going to the largest graduating class from the Xavier Institute yet and Charles can only think they'll continue to get larger. With the extensions to the mansion complete this forthcoming year would see the largest new influx of mutants attending his Institute so far. They were still finalising the list who would start in the Fall.

And it is no longer just ones he detects on Cerebro. Parents now write to him asking for their children to attend. That was different.

There was no way Charles could accept them all...which has had him thinking that Chloe's idea of a new school is very, very pertinent and the faster he can get the planning permissions the better. Course it is not quite that simple. Just not the construction of a brand new school but the teaching of a whole new staff of teachers on how to deal with mutants and the unique problems that come with them. It was going to take some time.

But for now he will just focus on today's graduates. Claire, Clark, Kitty, Kurt, Rogue, Amanda...and definitely not last nor least, according to her own lofty opinion anyway, was Betsy.

And Charles has to smile at seeing all his students taking their places in the stands. Even a couple who would surprise you. There was Angelica(Firestar) who seemed to have moved past her grieving period over what transpired with the boy Randall who got killed. While she hasn't officially asked to join in on the training she has been up in the observation room during sessions and it's quite clear she's thinking about it.

Then there was Liz Allan. Certainly one of his most difficult students. Her own self-loathing was strong and until she overcame it and accepted who and what she is, her progress was going to be slow but the fact she is out and mingling with other people today is a sign of progress. He takes it as a positive.

* * *

"Seems like you're getting a good day for it," Jean is saying to her boyfriend, admiring him in his gown and cap.

"Yeah, funny that. Just like last year," Clark remarks as he admires her back, dressed up, looking as beautiful as she always does.

Jean nods with a knowing smile.

"At least it'll be the end of fending them off," he says, jerking his thumb in the direction of Tempest, Tyler and Carly, the 3 'IT' girls of Bayville High. For the best part of 3 years Clark had had to fend off their advances.

Jean giggles as she recalls his mortified expression from last year at the thought of another year of them.

Clark smiles lovingly at her. She has a wonderful laugh.

"Well your future starts today, Clark," she points out.

Clark looks thoughtful for a moment. "And the future is about hope. That's what this day encapsulates and all the harassments, lost friends and fights don't matter because we earned this. We've all earned this more because of everything we have to endure."

Jean looks at him in wonder. He's paraphrasing what she said to him last year. It's just coming back to her now as he speaks.

Clark's face then goes sad and he speaks quietly. "You know, after Apocalypse, I wasn't feeling much hope. Wasn't really thinking about the future. I was just trying to survive day after day. Just trying to through from one sunrise to another. Felt more like trudging through life rather than enjoying any of it."

Jean's hand reaches out and takes his hands into her own. While she is no closer to actually reading Clark's mind than when they first discovered she could connect to it she sends him waves of comfort and reassurance.

"But you know what?"

"What?" she asks, her gaze soft and loving.

"I do feel hope about the future now because someone reminded me that life is about more than mere survival. They helped me learn to enjoy it again. They brought the light back into my world when all before had been darkness."

"Sounds like quite a person."

"She is."

"You should tell her so."

"I would...but Yana's ego is big enough already," he says with a smirk

Jean huffs and is away to storm off when she is pulled in Clark's strong arms and kissed silly.

"It's you," Clark says huskily. "Of course it's you. Thank you."

Jean forgives him for the bad humour...this time. And honestly Clark's brought a lot of light and joy to her life as well.

They stares deep into each other's eyes. Tension fills the air between them. A good kind. This is it. This is the moment for them to declare how they really feel about each other.

"Clark/Jean..."

But right before they can say it they are interrupted by what sounds like a snort of disgust. Both turn their heads to the source to find an unhappy looking Scott Summers, arms folded across his chest.

A frown mars Jean's pretty features and her green eyes harden slightly. "Something on your mind, Scott?" she asks.

"You know exactly what's on my mind, Jean," he practically accuses her.

"You know for once I really don't," she says, continually perplexed by his attitude lately. Clark is merely doing what any good reporter does. Investigate the evidence and try to understand how it all fits together. If anything he gives Emma far more benefit of the doubt than she ever would. What she can't understand is why Scott refuses to give his friend any benefit of the doubt.

"And here I thought my best friend and ex-girlfriend was once the person who understood me the most. Guess things change," he says, aiming a pointed look at Clark.

Clark knows Jean can defend herself and he learned that lesson once about not trusting her during Toyman's last escapade so instead he says, "Are we really doing this here and now, Scott? Do you really want to ruin everyone else's day by having a shouting match on Graduation Day? Do your other friends garner that little respect from you these days?"

Behind his red shades Scott's eyes narrow. Then without another word he storms off, pushing past the couple.

Jean just stares at his back in disbelief. He's right. He is her best friend...but he is dangerously close from turning that 'is' into a 'was'. She just does not understand this attitude. At all.

"Sorry," Clark says.

"What are you apologising for?" she asks in confusion.

Clark rubs the back of his neck in his shy, nervous gesture. "I never wanted to become between you and Scott."

Jean's face softens as she gazes lovingly at her boyfriend. "You didn't," she assures him. "He's being an ass and I don't know why," she says, her puzzlement written clear in her voice and across her face.

Clark puts an arm around her shoulder and squeezes gently. "I'm sure you'll figure it out and work it out."

"I hope so," she wishes, not really wanting to be estranged from her oldest friend.

"Well Scott better hope so too or he'll learn that maxim I did a long time ago."

"What?"

"To never, ever get on the bad side of Jean Grey."

Jean grins. "You better believe it buster," she says, poking him in the ribs playfully.

Clark leans over and kisses her on the temple, pleased he's made her smile again.

* * *

Up in the stands the staff and students sit, all dressed up as the ceremony will begin soon.

"That'll be us next year," Tabby is pointing out to her Wanda.

Wanda sighs. "Yeah."

"You don't sound all that enthused," the bubbly blond notices.

"Because I really don't have a clue what I'm doing afterwards," the dark-haired witch admits. This is the end of her first school year since she was seven. Technically she was of the age she could have been graduating right now but being left in that _place _half her life had left her behind. It was only the Professor's remedial teachings that has her caught up as much as she is. Point is what does she do after she does graduate?

Wanda has been struggling for awhile now to come up with an answer. She doesn't see herself going to college. There is no subject she sees herself getting a further education in.

"In that case maybe it's time to work on the Magic Act," Tabby suggests.

"Magic Act?" Wanda queries, lost at what her friend is on about.

"You know, taking the act on the road. Doing a show in Vegas," Tabby says with a huge shit-eating grin.

Wanda rolls her eyes. "You seriously see me, of all people, standing on a stage, in front of an audience doing that."

"Absolutely," Tabby confirms enthusiastically.

Cue another eye-roll. "And what about you Tabs? What are you plans?"

"To be your downright sexy and sassy assistant," the blond answers with a cheeky wink.

Wanda's lips curve upward into a small malicious grin. "Well I suppose I do need someone to cut in half."

Tabby gives her friend a queer look. "You're saying that with too much enthusiasm," she notes. Not to mention that disturbing gleam in Wanda's blue eyes.

"Am I?" the mutant sorceress asks back with faux innocence.

"Um..." Tabby stammers a little before turning to her other best friend. "Mara, girl, you want to swap places?"

* * *

"Managed to spare 5 minutes off today for your kids, huh Mr Mayor," Martha teases her husband.

Jonathan rolls his eyes fondly at his wife. She loves teasing him over the Mayor thing. Mostly because he really never wanted to be the Mayor. He did it for the children and to stop that mutant hating racist that is Robert Kelly. "Well you know, the President was wanting a meeting to discuss human/mutant relations but I told him my children come first."

Martha leans over and kisses his cheek. That was actually true. The President had invited Jonathan to a summit on human/mutant relations but he had refused to miss his children's Graduation Ceremony and that does include Claire who Jonathan counts as his own daughter now. No, that does not mean Jonathan is missing out on an important summit. It merely got delayed by 24hours. He'll be flying to Washington first thing in the morning.

Martha turns to her right. "So how are you feeling today, Ororo?" she asks because her dear friend has been having a queasy stomach on and off lately.

"Oh, I'm fine today," the white haired woman replies cheerily.

"That's good and thanks for the fine weather."

Ororo chuckles. "In all honesty I really didn't have to do much today. This is all Mother Nature," she gestures at the blue, sunny sky.

Martha shrugs. "You should always be appreciated Ororo."

"You as well, Martha," Ororo compliments her friend back in return. "I honestly cannot imagine what life would be like if you, Jonathan and Clark hadn't come to the mansion. You've done so much for the students."

"All I did was treat them like I treat my own children."

"Exactly," Ororo says and what is remarkable about her friend is that she doesn't realise how remarkable that is. When so many others treat them like outcasts or worse, Martha and Jonathan just treat them like everyone else.

* * *

It is only a short time later that the ceremony gets underway. Bayville High's Principal steps up to the lectern on the stage that has been built. Eliza Danvers had been Milton Fine's deputy until he had been exposed as, as far as the rest of the world was concerned, a super-powered individual.

The Professor had found her pleasant enough and she seemed to bear no ill-will towards mutants and had proven herself a quite capable leader of the school since assuming control these last several months.

"Welcome," the middle-aged woman greets everyone. "A year ago I didn't think I would find myself here," she says wryly prompting a small ripple of laughter. "To say the last year has been interesting would be an understatement though I think you will all forgive me if I skip over mentioning my predecessor. Following his departure my sole focus was on maintaining the good working environment of the school so that all our students were able to reach their full potential...and it is that which I wish to focus on. Potential. We all possess it. Our young people perhaps more than most because of the fact they are indeed young. They have a few more years than some of us. I'm not including myself in that," she jokes creating another ripple of laughter.

She waits for the laughter to die down. "Today's graduates are about to enter a world none of their parents could have imagined when they graduated. The world has transformed and opportunities abound everywhere. Potential. The potential for any one of today's graduates exists to transform the world again. Not necessarily in a big way. Small changes are not a failure. Indeed like the famous saying involving a butterfly flapping a small change can create ripples that produce effects none of us can predict. The potential is within all of you to make a brand new world. A better world. A...gasp!"

She chokes off as above the playing fields appears a diamond shaped black ship. The wind whips up suddenly until it is gale force, lashing everyone and creating panic.

"Brainiac," Clark says from between gritted teeth as he recognises that vessel.

A beam of light emanates from the ship, passing over one person to another...almost as if it is looking for someone in particular.

The X-Men do what they are trained to do and quickly move into action, helping evacuate the people as safely as possible.

It is one of those X-Men that the light finally settles on.

Clark spots it first. "Cyclops!" he yells out, preparing to blur over and to hell with it if anyone sees him.

"Scott?" Jean queries as Clark's voice hits her ears.

But it is too late for either to do anything as a blinding flash momentarily incapacitates them all. When they can see again there is no ship, no Scott and where he stood the grass is burning.

"Scott!" Jean yells after him, desperate worry for her friend surging through her as she tries and runs over but Clark stops her before she burns herself.

"Jean, stop. It's too late," Clark says, guilt rushing through him for delaying too late because of his whole secret identity bit.

"No!" Jean says in denial. Just because Scott's been an ass lately doesn't really lessen how much she cares about him. "Why? Why did it take him? What does it want?"

Clark shakes his head, clueless. "I don't know."

A sudden localised rainstorm, courtesy of the white-haired weather witch douses the fire and that is when Clark notices that burnt into the grass is a particular Kryptonian symbol.

The rest of the X-Men gather around the mark. It looks a bit like the letter 'Z'.

"Spaceboy can ya read that?" Logan asks, his fists clenched in anger and frustration

"Yes," Clark answers.

"What does it say?"

"It's not a word. It's a family crest. It's the mark...of the House of Zod." Clark's face goes exceptionally grave and he warns them all in grim tones, "It's started."

* * *

_Author's Note: So in Vessel Martha and Lois end up on a place hijacked by Brainiac. The same would have happened to Jonathan here if he hadn't chosen to delay said flight to attend his children's graduation. It has indeed started...and methinks Clark may come to regret not running those simulations(small spoiler there). Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 2._

_AN1: Hope you're all still safe and well from this damn virus._


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**Academy of Tomorrow(Temporary Accommodations)….**

In the building that was currently acting as her school's temporary accommodation while her Academy was being rebuilt Emma was doing what even she can't avoid doing once in awhile; paperwork.

Though strangely she's kinda happier just being here. Teaching has not been her priority lately and honestly she's missed it. She's missed working with her students, helping elevate them to their full potential.

Well except for Hellion naturally. There is no world where she would ever miss that spoilt, disobedient brat.

Emma takes a sip of her coffee...and this is a coffee whose cost would make your average person's eyes water. Then the gust of wind hits. Emma rolls her eyes and lets out a deliberate audible sigh. "You know there's this wonderful human custom. It's called knocking," she snarks.

Brainiac stands there, face impassive. "The time for human customs nears its end...as does humanity's reign over this world."

Emma stops what she is doing, blinks and then looks intensely at the humanoid machine.

"Zod's return draws near," Brainiac states. "It is time to get your students prepared."

"Now?" Emma blinks in surprise.

"Now."

"And you couldn't have given me more warning why?" she asks, clearly irritated.

"I did not calculate you required any...unless I was mistaken and you are not up to the challenge that awaits."

For an entity that claims to have no emotions Brainiac sure knows how to manipulate them...or to put it another way; knows how to push Emma's buttons.

Emma rises to her feet, her gaze hardening. "For the record, no I do not need more time but some prior warning would have been a courtesy," she says, her words sharp and aimed right at the Kryptonian AI.

"I'll keep it in mind."

"You do that," she says, her tone almost a warning. "Now what is it I am required to do?"

"For now, as we previously discussed, just have your students ready to act at a moment's notice. If all things go according to my calculations they will not have to do anything but when it comes to organics there are always random elements that defy calculation."

"How inconvenient for you," Emma drawls with a smile.

"I always have counter measures prepared for that very contingency."

"Uh huh. I believe you," she says with a flare of sarcasm before turning more serious. "Just remember our arrangement. My students are to be protected...and so is Scott."

"Your students' welfare along with Mr Summers' has all been included in the plan," Brainiac assures her. Of course what she thinks the plan is and what the plan actually is are not necessarily the same thing.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

The senior X-Men have gathered down in the War Room.

"Two years in a row. You'd think we'd catch a break," Domino is grumbling about the fact that this is the 2nd straight Graduation ceremony ruined. "But at least it wasn't you this time," she gently elbows her sister with a shit eating grin.

Rogue slaps Dom's arm away. "Yeah, yeah. Yer nevah lettin meh forget it are ya?"

"Nope," Dom promises making the green eyed mutant roll her eyes. The fact the two can joke about it shows how over the course of the last year Rogue has managed to come to terms with what happened to her at the hands of Apocalypse.

The Professor calls the meeting to order. "It goes without saying that we had known this moment was coming. The plan always has been to not provoke Brainiac into acting before we were ready which is why we, as Clark requested, had left him mostly alone to deal with this but with Scott's abduction I hope you can understand, Clark, we can no longer stay out of this."

Clark nods. "I understand Professor and the truth is I am ready. I've finally figured out how to destroy Brainiac."

"When did ye come up with t'is, lad?" Sean Cassidy asks.

"This morning."

"Convenient."

Clark shrugs. "I've been working on it for months. I finally finished it this morning," he clarifies.

"You believe this will work?" the Professor asks.

"Truthfully I cannot be certain but I believe it will. That being the case I really need to go up to the Fortress and get something."

"Can you clarify what and how this will work, Clark?" Beast inquires.

Clark takes a second to think over how to word this. "Ok, the Fortress has a Purge Function. An evasive program designed to attack and eradicate Brainiac. My goal has been how to use this function remotely, over distance and how to have it affect all of Brainiac, no matter how many copies it has made, wherever they are on the planet. To do that I created a sort of receiver/transmitter that I simply having to plunge into any version of Brainiac."

"That sounds like a feasible strategy," Beast believes.

"Still leaves the question of why did it take Scott?" Storm raises.

Clark sighs and glances at a visibly upset Jean. He hates seeing her like that. "I don't know. My best guess is leverage to try and force me to release Zod," he puts out there but that is pure speculation on his part.

"Which we have all already agreed must not be allowed to happen," the Professor restates the position. From what Clark has told them of Zod, releasing the Kryptonian General would bring about an untold disaster upon the Earth.

"Professor," Jean starts but is cut off by her mentor.

"No, Jean. I'm sorry," the bald man apologises. "I care for Scott like a son but we cannot release Zod. A viable plan to rescue him from Brainiac I'm open to which will involve Clark's plan to destroy Brainiac so please Clark, with all haste, go and get what you need," he permits the young man to leave the meeting.

Clark nods and steps over to Jean. "I'll do everything I can to save Scott," he promises her before giving her cheek a quick kiss and blurring away in his usual gust of wind.

With Clark's departure the X-Men resume their meeting to try and come with a strategy to rescue Scott.

* * *

Meanwhile up on the roof of the mansion stands Kitty and Peter.

"Well that put my Graduation ceremony to shame," Peter jokes and yes he had his the other day.

Kitty chuckles though it is a very light and almost morose sounding. "Pete can I ask you a question?"

"Always," he says.

"You said after you got bitten by the spider you developed an affinity for high place, right?"

"Yeah?" he says curiously.

"I think I'm developing the same," she says.

Peter looks at her intently.

"I'm running out of time," she states.

"No," Peter says in denial, pulling her close. "No. Kitty. I won't lose you. I can't," he chokes with emotion.

Kitty closes her eyes and leans into his warmth. "I just wanted to get through today," she whispers softly. "But I can hear _her_...and she's getting louder."

"The Professor…"

Kitty stops him. "I already talked to him. There is nothing left he can do."

Peter doesn't want to believe that. He can't imagine his life without her.

Kitty can hear _her _laughing, seducing, taunting, tempting. Unless some miracle way to remove the symbiote is come up with like immediately, she's going to have no choice but to go with Illyana's plan. To try and subsume and control Carnage into herself but she's afraid she will fail. Mostly because she is so, so tempted just to give in. More so than she has thus far admitted to anyone because she's ashamed of herself. It's wrong to be tempted. To want to rejoin with her other half...but she can't deny a part of her lusts for it. Her Other was right about her all along. "Whatever happens, Pete know that I love you. Even if I become...we'll still love you. We'll always love you," she feels a need to tell him that no matter what happens next her feelings for him will never change.

We. She's saying we. She's just started talking in plurals. God this can't be happening. He tightens his grip on her, not wanting to let go, afraid if he does, she'll be gone. "I love you Kitty," he says, "and I promise no matter what I won't stop fighting to save you."

"We know."

This touching moment is interrupted by a blinding flash of light. The couple looks for the source only to find that burned into the front lawn is the same mark as was burned into the Bayville High playing fields and lying at the exact centre of it is a certain missing X-Man.

"Scott!" Kitty cries out and then, without thinking, she leaps over the edge.

"Kitty!" Peter shouts after her, only to find her that she comfortably sticks the landing without too much effort. That is very concerning. He leaps after her and lands next to her before the two go and check on Scott. They roll him on his back, feel for his pulse and find it no problem. He looks alright.

"Scott," Kitty gently shakes him to see if he'll wake up.

He wakes up with a start and accidentally pushes away at Peter...only when he does so he ends up flinging the enhanced man away a good thirty feet. It's only Peter's unnatural agility and reflexes that allows to land with even half his dignity intact though he still ends up rubbing at the spot Scott hit him at. "Ow," he whines. That had hurt.

"How did you do that?" Kitty asks him, her shock completely making her forget her symbiote problem for the moment.

Scott, now sitting up, looks down at his own hands. "I...I don't know."

"Where have you been?"

Scott looks at her, clearly lost.

"We better get you inside," she decides and hoists him up with ease, once again demonstrating that Scott isn't the only one with new enhanced strength.

For both of them things have changed and are continuing to change but for good or ill...it maybe a little early to say.

Though if you want a spoiler go with ill. A lot of it.

* * *

**Fortress of Solitude...**

Clark has never known his birth father. The Jor-El that spoke to him had been corrupted by Apocalypse but honest to Rao he half wishes the real Jor-El was around to help him here and now. Maybe his real father was a prick just like the corrupted version or maybe he was more like the memory he got of the younger Jor-El when his father visited Earth half a century ago. That Jor-El Clark thinks he could have liked.

He walks over to the control console, past the varying things he has collected and stores up here, all on display on crystal pedestals. The axe from Limbo, the Legion time travel/flight ring, the suit from the Collector's ship, the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby, the crystal that still contains the sole version of Jor-El he possesses. Clark had never had the heart to smash it. Maybe hoping one day he can figure out how to undo what Apocalypse did. Thoughts for another day.

He waves his hand over the console and activates the holographic interface. He activates his amended Purge program. From the console a crystal begins to rise and attached to it is gleaming metal. It's a short sword and carved into the blade is Kryptonian script, glowing with eerie green energy. The sword floats in front of his face before he grabs hold of it. He prays to Rao that this will work because otherwise he's extremely short on ideas on how to destroy Brainiac.

Task here complete he blurs off back to Bayville.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

"What is the last thing you remember?" Beast is asking Cyclops as the young man sits on a bed down in the infirmary being examined.

"The Graduation Ceremony," is the reply, though it is a reply spoken in disgruntled tones as if he doesn't want to be here.

"That's it? Nothing else?"

"No," Scott says shortly. "Why am I even here? I feel fine," he complains.

"You are here, Scott," the Professor answers this time as he rolls into the infirmary, "because the last we saw of you was being abducted by Brainiac and upon returning you, you now, seemingly, possess super-strength."

"Nothing seemingly about it," Peter grumbles from another bed. "Have you seen the size of the bruise?" he asks, pulling aside his shirt to show said bruise on his shoulder. "What did I ever do to you?" he asks Cyclops.

"You talked," Scott says, quite nastily.

"You know you'd be amazed how often I hear that one," Peter jokes.

"Quite," the Professor says. "Point is, Scott that none of this makes sense. Why take you, only to return you? And why would it enhance you with super-strength?"

"What does it matter?!" Scott asks, getting more intransigent by the second. "And will you stop poking me?!" he demands, shoving Beast away, not as hard as he had Peter but enough to move the blue-furred man back several steps.

"Scott!" Jean yells at him. She was here because despite their issues he was still her oldest friend.

"Well, well, well, look who finally decided to speak to me," the shades wearing man says with clear bitterness and anger.

"What is that suppose to mean?" Jean wonders.

Scott rises to his feet and stalks over, his whole demeanour quite concerning. "It means, _Jeannie,_ that I'm surprised you could find 5 minutes out of screwing Clark to remember I exist!" he spits out in anger and what sounds like jealousy.

Everyone present looks at him in surprise and near shock at his language.

Jean's green eyes narrow. "Scott, I've always been here for you if you need me because despite everything I'm still your friend."

Scott lets out a hollow, bitter laugh. "Well you see that's the problem. Being only your friend is never what I wanted. I always wanted you, Jean. I wanted us but you were always looking the other way. In fact no, it was worse than that. You knew exactly how I felt and you dragged me along like I was a love sick puppy. Playing with my feelings."

"That's not true," Jean denies.

"Isn't it?"

"No! We were together, Scott and it was wonderful."

"If it was so 'wonderful' why did you end it?"

"You really want to do this here, in front of everyone?"

"Why not. It's not like anything around this place stays private for long. God, that pisses me the hell off. Fun fact Professor, we're entitled to a private life that stays exactly that; private."

"I agree, Scott," Charles says, his concern growing for his student by the second as he witnesses this anomalous behaviour.

"Then do something about it! You can start with Domino and I suggest you do something before I do," Scott says and there is an inherent threat in that statement.

"Hey!" Jean brings his focus back on her. "You want to air our dirty laundry in public so be it. I can sum up our problems in three words Scott. Emma Grace Frost."

Scott snorts. "Here we go," he mutters disparagingly. "It's always Emma's fault isn't it, Jean?"

"No," Jean denies, making a small surprised look appear on her ex's face. "It's yours because when it came down to it you took her side over mine. You took the side of that manipulate, two-faced cow over your own girlfriend. You gave her more benefit of the doubt than you ever, ever gave me and why, Scott? Seriously, I have never been able to understand your inability to see Emma for what she is."

"No, I do see her for what she is. You're the one who doesn't."

Oh God, the flashbacks. This is exactly why they broke up. "Scott, we have had this argument to death," she reminds him.

"So we have and yet you refuse to see the truth."

"What truth?"

"Out of the two of you the only manipulate, two-faced cow is the one standing in front of me!"

Jean's face darkens.

"Here's a truth, _Jeannie_; you're a fraud. You put on this pretence of being the kind, compassionate, understanding one. The heart of the X-Men but it's all lies. You play all of us like a violin, having us worship the ground you walk on. You get off on it. I almost feel sorry for Clark having fallen for your tricks. Almost but then I remember that our lives would have been better off if he had never come here."

"Scott," the Professor tries to intervene.

Scott's head snaps round. "It's true Professor! How many dangers has he put us in?" he asks the questions. "How many are solely because of him? If he wasn't here we wouldn't have had to face them," he argues.

"That's too simplistic an interpretation," Charles argues. "Many of those things would have affected the world and we would have had to face them eventually. Better to do it together than apart."

"You would say that since Clark being here was all your doing!"

Charles gazes at his student carefully. Where was all this anger coming from?

Scott shakes his head in disgust. "I don't need any of this. You want Clark, you can have him but I won't be sticking around here. When disaster befalls you all because of him I'll be with the one person who actually gives a damn about me."

He moves to leave but Jean grabs his arm. "Scott. You can't go. Brainiac..."

Scott grabs her wrist and squeezes.

"AH! Scott you're hurting me!" Jean cries as she starts to bend down at the knees.

Scott sneers at her. "Good," he says heartlessly. "Now you know a tiny taste of what you've done to me."

"That is enough Scott!" the Professor snaps in a loud, authoritative voice.

"Yeah, you're right Professor," Scott agrees. "It is enough. I'm done with all of you. I quit!" he snaps and then in a gust of wind he is gone.

He leaves behind a bunch of very shocked people and a hurt Jean rubbing her wrist.

There is silence until one spider-themed hero speaks up. "Um, is this a good time to mention that Kitty has started speaking in plurals?" he asks.

All he gets is a room full of incredulous looks.

* * *

**Academy of Tomorrow(Temporary Accommodations)….**

Emma has mentioned before how she doesn't like being left out of the loop but Brainiac was not telling her everything. This she knew but she had made a deal and now she had to live up to her end of it.

She had agreed to help Zod in his takeover of Earth in exchange for 3 things. Being at his side and therefore all the power that came with that position. Protecting her students and finally, of course, Scott.

Her students were now all geared up and ready to act at a moment's notice and she was just in her office gathering a few final things she needed when that familiar gust of wind strikes. She rolls her eyes as she turns around. "What is it now-Scott?!" she uncharacteristically splutters in surprise.

"Emma," he says her name in a downright sexy voice as he strides forward and kisses the life out of her.

Emma is stunned by the overwhelming strength and power she physically feels emanating from her boyfriend. So much so she barely even notices as he lifts her up and plants her on her desk and continues to make out with her until she is literally breathless. "Scott...what?" she asks, her chest heaving.

Scott smiles widely at her. "I quit."

"Quit?" she asks not quite understanding and too breathless to gather enough energy to read his mind.

"The Institute," he clarifies.

Emma's eyes widen slightly in surprise. She never imagined he would do that. Hoped he would obviously but somehow, some part of her didn't think he would ever do it. "Why?"

"Because I no longer need them. I only need you," he tells her.

"Well I could have told you that," she says, her own natural arrogance shining through.

Scott laughs and it is such a carefree laugh as if all his burdens had been lifted away. "I should have listened to you earlier. Those people...ack, you know what I don't want to talk about them any longer because I have a surprise for you."

Emma arches an eyebrow, intrigued. "Really?"

Scott nods. "I got given a gift," he tells her and then from behind his back pulls out a handgun.

"A gun? That's a rather cheap gift and not really you," she expresses her opinion.

Scott grins wider. "No. The gun is not the gift. This is," he says and before Emma can stop him he presses the gun into his chest, above his heart and pulls the trigger 3 times.

"Scott!" Emma cries, her heart racing in panic, her hands ripping at his shirt...only to reveal nothing but smooth unbroken skin. She looks at him in complete confusion. "I...what?"

"At first I didn't understand why but on the way over I did some thinking and now I do understand. I've been given this power to protect you Emma. I'm invulnerable now. I have strength and speed like you cannot imagine. No-one will hurt you for as long as I have any say in the matter."

"How?"

"The how doesn't matter," he dismisses the question. "All that matters is the result and you know what the best part is?"

Emma shakes her head, her mind reeling from all of this.

"This," he says and in a fluid motion he pulls away his shades.

Emma's lips part. His eyes. Instead of red beams of concussive force what she is looking into is Scott's natural blue eyes. Her hands reach up and her fingers trail around his eyes. "Scott," she says, her voice breathy.

"I love you, Emma," he tells her. "I'm only sorry my misplaced mistrust stopped me from seeing it before but I'm here now. I'm yours now. Forever," he promises her.

Emma's heart beats furiously. Words that normally do not escape her easily finally do. "I...love you too, Scott. All I've ever wanted is for you to love me back."

"And I do. Whatever comes next we're in this together. Let me show you how much," he says as he reclaims her lips once again.

* * *

_Author's Note: Goes without saying Scott isn't thinking straight. And the end draws ever nearer for our favourite phasing mutant...or is that simply a new beginning? Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 3._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

**At the Institute...**

Upon his return Clark had gotten told what had transpired and he listened with growing horror at every word as he stood in yet another emergency meeting in the War Room.

"I think the obvious question Clark is why? Why would Brainiac enhance Scott?" the Professor asks.

Clark thinks he knows the answer to that question. He wishes he didn't. "Zod's physical form...his body was destroyed. It's his consciousness that is imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. He can only leave if he has a vessel to inhabit. A body to possess."

"Scott," Charles says with grim realisation.

Clark nods. "I should have realised," he berates himself for not doing so, "but last time it was me Brainiac wanted to use as a vessel. I didn't think that was what it took Scott for," he says apologetically because he should have. He knew Zod needed a body to inhabit to leave the Phantom Zone but it never occurred to him that was why Scott was taken. Clark kinda just assumed Brainiac would try and use him again. That's one mistake made already and the day is still young.

"Zhose powers...Zhey're your powers," Nightcrawler suddenly understands what has happened to his friend.

Again Clark nods.

"What can you do for him?" Charles asks.

"I don't know," Clark says, bereft of any ideas how to reverse what has been done. "I need to stop Brainiac. Once that is done we can try and figure out how to help Scott because if we don't stop Zod's release none of us will be here to worry about it," he has to prioritise the issues. "Although this helps me find Brainiac," he tags on.

"What do ya mean?" Rogue asks.

"Because wherever Scott is Brainiac will be, yes?" Storm guesses.

"It would make sense for it to watch over the vessel it has prepared for its Master," Sage reckons, her computer-like mind seeing the logic.

Charles nods. "I'll go and see if I can locate Scott on Cerebro," he announces. "Once I have we'll come up with a plan to subdue him."

Once the Professor has gone Clark asks, genuinely surprised she isn't here, "Where's Jean?"

All the faces wince slightly.

Clark notices. "What?"

"Prepare to be pissed, kid," Logan warns him before he tells him.

* * *

"Nothing is broken as far as I can see," Dr McCoy informs Jean as he examines her x-ray. "It looks like just heavy bruising."

"Still hurts though," Jean points out, trying not to let it show how much it hurts...and not just the physical pain. The emotional pain too.

Hank smiles softly. "I'll strap it and you try and avoid doing too much with that wrist for a few days," he advises.

"Not sure that's gonna be an option," Jean murmurs considering the situation they are facing.

"Is me punching Scott's teeth down his throat an option?"

Two heads turn to the infirmary doorway as Clark makes his appearance, his face clearly showing his anger which only grows deeper as he gazes at the deep bruising on Jean's wrist.

"Hey, you're back," Jean says, her voice breathy.

Clark strides over and gives her a quick kiss. "Are you ok?" he asks with deep concern.

"It's just bruising, right Dr McCoy?"

"Yes. Nothing is broken," the blue-furred doctor repeats what he said.

"I can't believe Scott hurt you," the young alien says in disbelief.

"He wasn't thinking straight," Jean says in his defence...and yes it may seem odd for her to defend the man who hurt her but she cannot believe a Scott in his right mind would ever intentionally hurt her, no matter what their current issues are.

"Brainiac has distorted his mind, I know," Clark accepts the fairly flaming obvious. "Doesn't mean I'm not still tempted to give him one hell of a dentist bill."

Jean giggles and shakes her head in amusement. She leans up and gives him a kiss on the lips. "Glad to know you care but if anyone is altering Scott's dental work it's going to be me."

Clark's face softens with deep emotion. "Of course I care Jean. I care for you a lot. I..."

And before he can say it Beast interrupts with an exaggerated clearing of his throat. "I need to strap her wrist," he reminds the two...and seriously if he didn't interrupt he had a feeling those two would end up making out right in front of him and while he is all for romance he doesn't need to see that.

"Right. I'll get out of your way," the dark haired young man agrees to but just as he turns to leave a gust of wind signals the arrival of his current nemesis. "Brainiac."

"Hello Kal-El," the machine greets him coolly. Its eyes fall on Jean and more particular her injured wrist. "Fragile little creatures aren't they," it comments.

"But our spirit is indomitable," Beast would argue.

"On another day Dr McCoy I would...enjoy having a philosophical debate with you but alas my business here involves more pressing matters."

"Leave them out of this," Clark states, desperately not wanting to start a fight here in the mansion. The destruction a fight between himself and Brainiac would cause...doesn't bear thinking about. Plus he had put the sword from the Fortress down in his research room while he had gone to attend the meeting so he doesn't even have the means to hand right now to destroy his foe. "This is between you and me," he tells it, trying to do what he has been from the start; protect his friends.

"Their involvement is your own fault, Kal-El. You were suppose to be the vessel for Zod but your father's spirit was too strong in you."

"Yeah, I figured that out last time and also I think you just insulted my mother," he argues because seriously why are all the comparisons he hears only ever to his father? Is there truly nothing of his mother in him?

"Not all all. Your mother was...what's an applicable human word...feisty. Your father liked them strong. A trait I've noticed you have in common."

The way Brainiac eyes Jean makes Clark deeply uncomfortable as he deliberately places himself between it and her.

"Well as strong as any member of this pathetic race can be," the AI caveats. "But not strong enough to survive what is coming...unless you make a different choice and then they will be spared."

Clark's face is as hard as stone. "I will never release Zod," he vows.

"So there is nothing that will _encourage _you to so so?"

"No."

Brainiac smirks. "Except, maybe, your one weakness. Your compassion for this primitive race. As I said at the beginning they're so fragile," it says as it walks over towards where Beast has a laptop open on a desk. "They'll never survive without their technology. No matter how crude. Take that away and they'll devolve back to the animals they really are. And you can't save them all."

The 3 other present in the room wonder what the Kryptonian machine is on about.

"And if he releases Zod we're all doomed anyway," Jean says, standing by her man. "You heard him. He said no. Better to die on our feet than live as slaves."

Brainiac looks at her, intrigued. "So like your mother, Kal-El," it comments.

Jean isn't sure what to make of that comparison.

"If that is your choice, so be it," Brainiac says as it slams its hand down onto Beast's laptop. The screen becomes filled with Kryptonian script and suddenly the lights start to flicker. "It begins. Enjoy the show," it says before blurring off just as the lights fail and the emergencies kick in.

* * *

"It's some sort of electronic virus but it's like nothing I have ever seen and it's spreading faster than I can track. It's tearing through firewalls as if they're not there. Communications are failing and it's starting to infiltrate and attack the infrastructure. It's already hit New York," Chloe reports after Clark had gone to her to help find out what Brainiac had done.

The two of them along with Jean and Beast were all in the computer room.

"It's Brainiac. He's trying to force my hand," Clark says, his voice low and angry.

"Well he's definitely playing hard-ball. Elevators, gas mains, subways, everything. He's already shut down Bayville and New York will be in the same state in less than an hour and at the rate it is spreading in 24 hours it will have shut down the world. Not even the Collector's virus did that."

"Because it wasn't designed to," Clark points out. "The Collector wanted to preserve life. Brainiac wants to end it...though I do wonder if it got the idea for this from what the Collector did," he speculates.

On the screen a newsfeed comes up...though the picture is breaking up. "Reports are coming in of a sudden and complete collapse of New York's infrastructure. Panic is beginning to spread and there are reports of sporadic violence and looting. Similar reports had been coming in from Bayville before all communications with the city collapsed. Officials..."

Chloe mutes it. "Brainiac is going to tear this world down until you give in," she summarises.

Clark rubs his face. "I can't Chloe," he says in pained tones. "Releasing Zod would not save anyone." A hand comes to rest on his shoulder courtesy of his girlfriend.

"This is not your fault, Clark," Jean assures him.

"Isn't it?" he asks as his guilt complex reasserts itself. "If I had come up with a way to stop Brainiac sooner," he laments his failure.

"But you have come up with a way, Clark," Beast reminds him. "We just need to find him...it...you know I do not believe we've ever agreed on the correct personal pronoun."

"I will not call Brainiac a him," Clark states with a no nonsense tone.

"You call Darci a her," Jean reminds him of her android friend.

"It's not the same," he argues. "Even if it seems similar," he will concede that fact. "But Darci is an independently thinking person. Brainiac is a weapon carrying out Zod's orders," he tries to illustrate the difference even if it is only a difference in his mind.

"Oh God, Darci. What if she can get infected?" Jean suddenly realises the danger her friend might be in.

"The mobile networks have crashed," Chloe reports. "There's no way to reach her now."

Worry passes over Jean's face. She has really come to like Darci as a friend. The fact she is a machine barely ever occurs to Jean now.

"I'm afraid as much as we might be concerned for your friend, Jean we must concentrate on the immediate threat," Beast says, sympathetic to his student's feelings but needing to focus on the bigger picture.

"We need to find Brainiac," Clark states. "Wasn't the Professor..." he recalls with a furrowed brow that the Professor was suppose to be finding Scott on the hope it would lead them to the Kryptonian AI. For that part nothing has changed.

A look of concentration comes to Jean's face as she uses her telepathy to seek out her mentor. Her eyes then widen in worry. "Professor!" she cries.

* * *

"What happened?" Logan asks in his gruff tones as he stalks into the infirmary where the Professor lies, unconscious and unresponsive.

"Our best guess is that he was in the middle of using Cerebro when Brainiac's virus struck," Beast replies as he does his very best for his friend. "I can only imagine the shock his mind undertook at that exact moment."

"He's suffering from a psychic seizure," Sage reports, her hand on his head as she uses her own telepathy to try and reach him. "His mind is caught between this plane and the astral plane."

"Can you reach him?" Logan asks the dark-haired woman.

"No," she states. "He needs to resolve this on his own and find his way back to us. It's a fight we can't help him with."

Logan rubs his face. As if they didn't have enough problems, what with the world falling apart. "Look after him," he instructs before turning and departing. All this psychic crap was not his area. He was more the fight and stab it sort of guy and in fact that was a skill that was going to be very useful because when he caught up with Brainiac he was going to shred that fucking machine apart.

Logan storms his way back into the War Room. "Alright, time is short, give me any idea on how we sort this," he tells the gathered X-Men, taking charge.

"We find and destroy Brainiac," Clark states it.

"Ok, ya got an idea onto how?"

"That was what Charles was attempting to do," Storm reminds them.

"I've only got one idea," Clark says. "And even then it's kinda tentative," he cautions.

"Not got anything else t' go on, lad," Banshee points out.

"When I was down in Honduras a few weeks back, looking for Brainiac I found a possible link to Frost Industries." He then goes on to explain finding that part of glass with the Frost Industries logo on it.

"Frosty?" Logan queries in surprise.

Clark shrugs. "I've been investigating it and found nothing really but I can't shake the feeling that it wasn't a coincidence."

"It would also make sense as to where Scott disappeared off to," Jean adds.

Everyone looks at her.

"Well he is dating her," she says, not even trying to hide her unhappiness at that fact.

"And where Scott is Brainiac is probably nearby," Clark repeats an assumption they have already made.

"Sounds like a place to start," Domino offers her opinion.

Logan agrees. "Alright. Gear up. We're leaving in 5," he orders.

"Um, before we do what about Kitty?" Jean asks.

"What about Kitty?" Rogue asks, her head snapping round to stare at Jean at hearing her best friend's name.

"She's...uh...according to Peter she's starting speaking in plurals," the red-head explains.

"What?!" Rogue yells in shock and worry for her friend.

Logan rubs his face again. "We can't do anything about that right now."

"What?!" Rogue repeats her yell, this time aimed at her father.

"I'm sorry, Stripes but if we don't stop Brainiac none of us are goin to be here to worry about the half-pint," the feral mutant can only offer in regret. He loves Kitty as much as he does anyone but he has to prioritise. In this case saving the damn world...again.

Rogue hates it. Hates that he's right. God, she can only hope Kitty will be alight until after they have dealt with this. In fact now they're talking about it where is Kitty?

* * *

"I can't believe I let you talk me into this," one Peter Parker mutters as he fears for his life as one Kitty Pryde drives them in the X-Van towards New York.

"Peter we…," she shakes her head. "**I,"** she manages to say, "know there isn't much time left. Let We...me spend it helping you help people. Please," she pleads. "If this is the last day I am Kitty Pryde let me choose how I go out," she argues.

And that is how she talked him into it. He can't say no to her. Especially when she looks at him with those big soft brown eyes. Eyes that should be watching the road! "Look out!" he shouts as Kitty swerves to avoid hitting a dog.

"Stupid dog," she mutters. "If We weren't in such a rush We'd skin it alive!" she vows, banging her fist atop the steering wheel in annoyance.

Peter closes his eyes and shakes his head. This...this is going to be up there are one of his top 5 worst ideas. He should make a YouTube video of those. Probably get millions of hits...of people laughing at his misery.

* * *

"Are ya done Gadget-Boy?" Logan asks Forge impatiently.

The techno-mutant is just finishing work on the X-Jet. "Yep. All wireless interfaces are shut-off. The virus shouldn't be able to infiltrate the on-board systems."

Logan grunts. Luckily when he told Hank they were leaving the blue-furred mutant doctor made the good point of ensuring Brainiac's virus hadn't gotten into the jet's systems and if it hadn't making sure it couldn't. It is not something Logan himself would have ever thought of.

He looks behind him at his team. He was choosing to bring Banshee along over his daughter Siryn on this one. There was also Nightcrawler, Tarot, Thunderbird, Iceman, Rogue, Jean, Superman and Volcana(who had always ever only been half-committed to the X-Men but was always totally committed to her brother, showing just how much he means to her even if she never says it out-loud. Perhaps that urge is even stronger after the last year when Clark had insisted on being on his own as much as possible as SHIELD chased him all over the country).

"Right, come on Hairy, lets get going," Domino says as she slides into the co-pilot's seat.

Logan rolls his eyes. And of course there was her. Though as aggravating as Domino can be what she does bring with her is her luck...and the Canadian mutant has a feeling that they're going to need all the luck they can get.

* * *

**Academy of Tomorrow(Temporary Accommodations)….**

"Well that was suitably epic," Emma comments as she redresses herself which earns a deep chuckle from her lover but for once she was not being sarcastic. It had taken her a good 10 minutes just to feel her legs again and no doubt she would be feeling this later but it was completely worth it. Not just the fact the sex was great but that Scott has finally chosen to commit himself 100% to her.

Though in all honesty she really should be questioning more how he suddenly got these new powers and as the post-coital euphoria starts to pass that question does start to rattle around inside her brain. She guesses this is what she gets for letting her hormones drive her for once. Well she can't put it off. "Scott..." she begins to say and is then cut off when the lights flicker before cutting out.

"It's started," Scott says in a monotone.

Emma looks at him curiously. "What has?"

"The Rebirth." He looks at her and Emma shivers at how cold his eyes are. Especially compared to the heat and passion that was in them only moments ago. "When the Last Scion of the House of El gets here tell him he'll find me where this all began. A fitting place for it to end."

And before Emma can ask what he is on about he is gone in a gust of wind, leaving her utterly lost.

For Emma Frost has no idea what is about befall her, the planet and all of humanity. If she did...then maybe she wouldn't have made foolish deals with Kryptonian AIs.

* * *

_Author's Note: So Brainiac is ramping up the pressure on Clark and yeah, Peter just might be adding this moment to that youtube series of his biggest mistakes. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 4._

_AN1: As always hope everyone is keeping well._


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"You sure this is the place, Fortune Cookie?" Wolverine asks Tarot, using a new nickname he's got for her as the jet circles over some buildings around a courtyard in what was one of the older parts of Boston...and it was also clear from when they were flying over the city that Brainiac's virus had now reached here. Time was growing short.

"Yeah. This is the place we were told to go should anything ever happen to the school," the former Hellion answers. Marie was the best hope for knowing where to look for Emma and Scott since they had no other method of doing so at the moment.

"Never wanted to come back anywhere near here," Volcana mutters. She's conflicted about her time at Emma's school. She was in bad place mentally and emotionally when she agreed to join but she did learn some useful stuff about her powers and she got to meet her girlfriend...so yeah conflicted.

"Scott's not here," Superman reports using his x-ray vision. "Emma is though and so are the Hellions so it's definitely the right place," he can confirm that Tarot is correct.

"Well we'll just pop down and ask her _nicely_ whether she's seen our wayward X-Man," Domino proposes.

Lacking any better ideas Logan agrees.

Upon landing it is no surprise to find they are being greeted by Emma and the Hellions. Emma probably sensed them at least several minutes ago.

"So is this a business call? Or where you just in the neighbourhood?" Emma asks casually, covering over her confusion as to why the X-Men are here.

"Can it Frosty," Wolverine snaps gruffly. "We're looking for Cyclops."

"Scott isn't here but if you want to leave a message I'll pass it along next time I see him. You know if we're not too _busy,_" she says with the appropriate suggestiveness in her voice while she aims a look at Jean who frowns deeply.

"We do not have time for these games," Superman mutters as he steps to the front. "Where's Brainiac?" he demands.

"Who?"

"Brainiac...Milton Fine...whatever it is calling itself. Look around Emma. The world is falling apart and yet you don't seem all that concerned. Makes one think you knew beforehand."

"Did ya teach?" Hellion asks.

Emma scowls. For once can Julian know when to keep his damn mouth shut.

"Ok, the other month I said something about not making unfounded accusations so I'm about to be a total hypocrite here but I...the world does not have time for all this crap we usually go through. What deal did you make with Brainiac, Emma?" Superman just straight out asks her.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

Superman rattles on, far too pressed for time to be as cautious as he usually would be about revealing information. "Did it tell you about Zod? That he needs a vessel to inhabit? What do you think Cyclops' new powers are about?"

Emma's eyes widen just slightly.

Superman spots it. "It did tell you didn't it. Come on Emma. I need to know. If you want to save Scott tell me what you know," he tries to persuade her.

For once Emma's internal conflicts are written large across her face. Scott always did have more of an effect on her than just about anyone else sans her late brother. "It never said it would be Scott," she says in a quiet voice, confessing the truth.

"You stupid bitch!" Jean snaps and not just verbally. Before anyone can stop her she has slapped Emma right across the face. "How could you?!" she demands to know, anger the like of which is rarely seen radiating from her.

"Easy Jean," Superman pulls her back gently. "This isn't the time for this."

Jean tries to reign herself in. Clark's right. This isn't the time for this but rest assured this ain't over. She's not forgetting this.

"Where is Scott, Emma?" Superman asks. "I can stop this. All of this. Just tell me where he is," he implores her.

"I don't know," she says with a sigh, resisting the urge to rub her stinging cheek and show any sign of weakness. "Just before he left he said 'When the Last Scion of the House of El gets here tell him he'll find me where this all began. A fitting place for it to end'."

Something flashes across Superman's face. "Thank you Emma," he says. "I know we haven't gotten along but I will get Scott back," he promises before turning round and heading back to the jet to get the sword he needs to end this. Jean chases after him.

"You really made a deal with Brainiac?" Domino asks in disbelief of the former White Queen.

"That's none of your business," Emma dismisses the monochrome mutant, having absolutely no wish to go into any detail. "I told you what you needed. Now please leave," she tells them with no room for argument.

"We'll leave but this ain't over Frosty. Not by a long shot," Wolverine warns her because this cannot just be forgotten but this ain't the time for it. He and the rest of the X-Men then head towards the jet where they find Clark and Jean arguing.

"What is going on?" Banshee asks.

"He's planning to face Scott and Brainiac alone," Jean almost hisses in her fury.

"The fuck?!" Volcana exclaims.

Clark rubs his face, so not wanting to have this debate.

"Dude, ve're right zhere vith you," Nightcrawler reminds him.

"I know you are Kurt and I appreciate it but us charging in together isn't going to get this done."

"Ya want ta explain that there, sugah?" Rogue asks her ex.

"I need to lure Brainiac out into the open so I can shove this into it," he explains the plan, holding the sword up. "It isn't going to show up if there's a bunch of us. With all due respect to Scott this really isn't about him. I destroy Brainiac and I end this. Hell with any luck this will be over in less than an hour from now."

"Then why are did we all come along here in the first place?" Tarot wonders aloud.

"Because I didn't know what was going on. If Scott and Brainiac were here I couldn't fight them and the Hellions. Shockingly I am aware that I'm not all powerful."

"Can the sarcasm, kid," Wolverine tells him off.

"Look you can follow on behind me if you want but I will be flying on ahead by myself."

"Flying t' where, lad?" Banshee asks.

"Like Emma said. Where it all began."

"Which is where exactly?" Iceman asks.

Clark shakes his head sadly at the ice-generator. "Chloe would be so disappointed in you Bobby," he says humorously because if his BFF was here she would have already got it. "After all isn't it obvious? It's the one place I can never seem to quite escape the pull of no matter how far I fly away."

Clark lets out a giant sigh before giving the answer.

"Smallville."

* * *

**New York...**

It was all transpiring exactly as Brainiac said it would. Without technology people were reverting to their base instincts. Anarchy had descended upon New York. They were mass riots right across the city. Looting, violence, bloodshed. Gun shots were a regular sound right across the metropolis.

Amidst it all New York's heroes were trying their best but it felt like trying to stop the tide from coming in.

Spider-Man was webbing up them as fast as he could but they were coming out of the woodwork faster than he could do so. Not to mention he had to keep a worried eye on his girlfriend who was taking down rioters and looters with far more violence than he was comfortable with.

As for Kitty it felt like her blood was roaring in her ears...and that roaring had a voice. _Her_ voice. Her own twisted voice encouraging her to embrace the violence, the blood, to revel in it. To finally open the cage and let go. The rush...the thrill...it was so tempting. It would be so easy to do that. To just let go.

She knew the end was close but it was like she said on the drive over. Choosing how she goes out. If this is the end she can go out a hero. Helping save as many people as she can. She knows Peter is watching her. It was like any second he was expecting the red and black symbiote to erupt out of her and consume her once again. It probably will but not yet.

Peter's thoughts, before he gets distracted by the chaos around him, is that this couldn't be the end. It just couldn't be. He wouldn't allow it. He can't lose her. He's not sure he could survive it.

Unfortunately for Spider-Man his survival is more on the line than he thinks it is because watching him and Shadowcat are a group of people with bad intentions. A group who thanks to the complete and total breakdown of technology escaped their prison cells.

Six individuals with bad intentions.

Or rather Six individuals with 'Sinister' intentions.

* * *

**Smallville, Kansas...**

Clark comes to land in the place where it all began. No, not his former home and now current residence to Smallville's mutant community.

That is not where it began.

It began in a simple nondescript field.

This was the field in which his ship landed. This is the field where his parents found him. This is where his life on Earth began.

And this is where he finds Scott standing, waiting for him, now dressed all in black. Shirt, pants, boots and a long overcoat.

"Hello, Scott," he greets him politely because remember this isn't about his friend. This is about Brainiac.

"Clark," Scott greets him back coolly.

"There's something different about you. New hair cut?" Superman offers as a joke because the obvious thing is the lack of red shades.

"Ah, the lame jokes."

"Their lameness is a matter of perspective."

"So's the truth."

"Are we quoting Star Wars here about truths depending greatly on your point of view?"

"No because there is no 'point of view'. There is only the truth."

"And what is the truth, Scott?"

"Look around you Clark," he gestures at the field. "This is where you came to this planet."

"Which is interesting you know that since I've never brought you here," Clark mentions.

If Scott hears him he shows no indication. "The truth is though this shouldn't have been the beginning of your life on Earth. It should have had no beginning. You should have never left Krypton," he states callously.

"So I should have died?" Clark asks.

"It may sound cruel but yes."

Clark folds his arms across his chest. "Can I get a little more than just, 'Yes, I should have died'?" he requests Scott elaborates, simply continuing to buy time for Brainiac to show up.

"You see I tried to explain this to them before I left the Institute but they didn't want to hear it. About the dangers you alone are responsible for."

"Ah I see," Clark drawls. "And if I had died on Krypton those dangers would never have happened."

"Yes."

"Is this suppose to be some sort of revelation?" Clark asks mockingly. "Because as anyone who knows me will tell ya I have a bit of an over-enlarged guilt complex."

"You have a funny way of showing it."

Clark arches an eyebrow. "Well at least you didn't drag us back to the 60s and make this about Jean because I just know she would have kicked your ass into next week for that terrible cliche."

"Jean made her choice," Scott says, his voice flat. "She will have to live with the consequences."

"Very mature of you...except for the part where I'm responsible for things I can't be."

"I may not be able to change the past and not have you arrive here, Clark but I can put an end to it here and now. In the place it began. Irony or poetic justice?"

"So you're going to kill me?"

"I am."

"Any chance you'll listen to the argument that you're not thinking straight? That Brainiac has infected you?"

"Brainiac didn't infect me. He elevated me."

"No, Scott. It's using you. You're nothing but its flying monkey right up to the point it stuffs Zod inside of you and then this world will be no more."

"Lies. Nothing but lies from someone who claims to stand for truth," Scott says, showing how utterly delusional he is now is. "The only danger to this world is you and I'll make it safe but getting rid of you!" he yells before bursting into superspeed.

Clark sidesteps the rushing mutant and uses Scott's momentum against him to throw him through the air until he impacts the ground hard, carving out a trench. Clark superspeeds over to where his friend lies. "Fun fact Scott; superspeed does not change the laws of momentum. It all just occurs in a shorter time frame."

Scott slams his fists into the ground in anger and unlike his normal self, rushes into battle without thinking out a plan.

The two super-powered young men battle across the field and while you would think they would be evenly matched it's clear Clark has the edge. Why? Simply possessing powers like his doesn't mean you understand how to use them to their full extent and as smart as Scott is or as much as they may have trained together it's not the same as actual experience.

Plus Clark can fly and Scott cannot...or at least doesn't know how to.

Therefore once Clark has managed during their tussle to get Scott airborne the advantage is his and the two plow into the ground where Clark yanks out the sword from under his jacket and holds it against his friend's throat.

"Well, well the real Clark Kent finally shows himself," Scott coughs.

"I don't want to do this, Scott. Don't make me," Clark warns him...bluffing his pants off.

"Do it Kal-El."

Clark's head snaps up. Look who has finally shown up.

"Kill him," Brainiac says. "Do it and all this ends. You can save the rest of humanity and all you have to do is kill your friend," it tells its fellow survivor of Krypton.

Clark's brow furrows. Is that why Brainiac chose Scott? Because it knew Clark could never kill his friend. Doesn't matter in the end because Clark has finally gotten what he wants. He draws the sword back as if away to strike Scott down, only in a fraction of a second to fling it into Brainiac, embedding it in the Kryptonian construct.

How it is suppose to work is the sword is a receiver into which the Fortress transmits its Purge protocols which will not only destroy this copy of Brainiac but through the subspace links that connects them all, uses that link to destroy them all.

And it will work...but at a price. The problem is any connection can be used in reverse and if Clark had had time to run those simulations he might have realised that his alterations to the Purge program had accidentally created a backdoor, a bypass around the safeguards that normally prevent anyone but him from accessing the Fortress. One Brainiac, in its last few seconds of existence, will exploit to fulfil its mission.

As a red beam of energy erupts from the sword, out of Brainiac's back, Clark realises something is wrong. "What have I done?" he asks.

"You've opened the portal for Zod!" Brainiac says, triumph clearly present in its voice. A second beam erupts from Brainiac's front and slams into Scott, blasting Clark away by the sheer force of it.

Scott screams in pain until the beam ceases...caused by the disintegration of Brainiac. The sword falls to the ground.

It takes Clark a minute to get back to his feet. When he does all he finds is Scott standing there, perfectly still, his hands crossed behind his back. "Scott?" he queries.

"You have your mother's eyes," 'Scott' says before turning round to face the Kryptonian hero. "Hello Kal-El," he greets him.

"Zod," Clark breathes in horror. No, no, no, no! "Where's Scott?"

"Scott Summers is dead. His body is now merely a vessel to contain my essence."

"What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Scott/Zod asks as he begins to circle around Jor-El's son. "What does anyone want who has been caged like a beast?"

"Revenge," Clark knows because he's been caged like a beast.

"Insightful," Scott/Zod remarks. "Your father banished me to an eternal hell for trying to save a doomed race. And in the end, the only survivor of his pathetic crusade was his son," he says, seemingly mocking Jor-El.

"My father once said you were friends," Clark recalls something his not-father said and hopes was at least partially the truth.

"We were," Scott/Zod confirms. "It should have been him by my side as we saved Krypton," he says wistfully. "But he chose to side with the corrupt ineptitude that was the Ruling Council for reasons only he can ever explain."

"Perhaps by the fact you were willing to destroy Krypton in the end he decided that they, as corrupt and inept as they were, were better than the alternative," Clark puts forward.

"Perhaps that is what he thought but what do you think, Kal-El?"

Clark frowns in confusion.

"You are not your father. You have your own mind. I will make you the same offer I made him...in honour of the memory of a lost friendship. Join me and we can restore all that we have lost."

"Your disciples made the same offer. I will tell you what I told them. Not at the price of humanity," Clark refuses.

"They're doomed anyway," Scott/Zod argues. "It is only a matter of time before they annihilate themselves. Just like our people did."

"They didn't annihilate themselves. You murdered them!" Clark spits out, his temper simmering near the boiling point.

"I removed a weak and failed race that was as doomed to destroy itself as humanity is. What I will restore will be strong and disciplined. Ready to take its rightful place in the universe."

"Let me guess. A race made in your image?"

"A race made in my philosophy," Scott/Zod corrects.

It's basically the same thing as far as Clark is concerned. "I've already saved this planet many times over. Do you really think I'll just let you destroy it like you destroyed Krypton after all that?" he asks, practically exasperated at the idea.

"The young are oft foolish and your previous misjudgements when it came to your actions on this planet were understandable considering that you were raised amongst them. It is only natural you would develop a misplaced attachment but what are they compared to us, Kal-El? Is their sacrifice really such a steep price for the restoration of our race?"

Clark looks at the man wearing his friend's body in disbelief. "I've faced this choice before. Being told one group of people is somehow worth more than another," he recalls. It was when 'Jor-El' stripped him of his powers and he died saving Torpid and his not-father asked him if he was willing to die for a 'worthless'(he's paraphrasing but that was the gist of it) child all alone in the dark. "I will happily make the same choice now I did then. All life has the same value. Resurrecting ours at the price of humanity is too high a price. I won't help you. Not under any circumstances," he makes his decision very clear.

"If that it is your decision Kal-El, so be it. I hope this is a decision you can live with forever," Scott/Zod says in foreboding tones as he pulls a ring shaped bracelet-like object from his pocket.

One like Clark has seen before. It's what the Disciples tired to use on him. It opens a portal into the Phantom Zone.

Scott/Zod throws it into the air behind Clark and then, before Clark can hope to react, the Kryptonian General attacks and Clark is swiftly pummelled to the ground. It was so quick. Faster than Scott alone moved during the fight they just had. Faster than Clark himself thinks he can move at. He finds himself picked up, hand tightly round his throat which he helplessly grasps at.

"Enjoy your father's prison, Son of Jor-El," Scott/Zod states coldly and with that throws the son of his former friend turned bitterest enemy into Jor-El's prison. Now that has a certain feeling of poetic justice around it.

* * *

The x-jet was inbound to Smallville but they were still at least 20 minutes away. Aboard there was increasing worry because they hadn't heard from Clark. If he had succeeded surely he would have called by now. The fact he hadn't...does that mean…

One person desperately trying not to think he had failed was Jean but worry was growing in her gut. Clark had become so important to her. At night, when they're together and touching, when her mind and his can connect...she has come to find it a soothing and welcome presence. Instead of having to listen to words she gets colours, abstract images, the varying temperatures of Clark's emotions. She had noticed that when it was just them they were so warm. She has come to enjoy it much more than being bombarded with what she normally gets from everyone else's mind.

Jean tries to focus her mind. Usually she's really good at it. The result of many years of the Professor's teachings but right now she is finding it difficult. And it's not just because of Clark. Her oldest friend is also in the middle of this, being used and manipulated by Brainiac.

Jean's thinking is interrupted by Domino speaking.

"It's getting worse out there from what I can pick up. It's now coast to coast. Law and order is breaking down. It's anarchy," she is relaying the current state of the nation.

"Can we still reach the mansion?" Wolverine asks.

"Uh...yeah on the good old fashioned radio," Domino says, wrinkling her nose. "Who knew good old AM radio would still have its place," she tries to joke.

Logan grunts. That had been installed as the supposedly all fail back-up should they ever fail and indeed the world end. "Tell Hank to send out Generation X into Bayville and try and help out best they can while keeping the New Mutants in reserve," he instructs his partial offspring.

Domino nods and relays the message while Logan sees if he and get any extra speed out of the jet. They've got to get to Smallville and find out what happened.

* * *

High above the Earth, looking down upon it, in the hemisphere where it is night the flickering lights of the cities go out one by one as the planet is plunged into darkness and chaos. And looking on helplessly is Superman, trapped in a flat glass-like prism futilely punching his fists against the surface.

Zod is free to do to Earth what he wants and the Son of Jor-El is helpless to stop him.

He was warned Zod was coming.

Well Zod has come.

Zod has won and he has lost.

And this is the price of failure.

To be trapped in this prism.

This prism that will deliver him to his new home.

The prison for the worst criminals in the 28 galaxies.

Krypton's own home-made version of Hell.

The Phantom Zone.

Where the Last Son of Krypton will spend the rest of eternity.

* * *

_Author's Note: So yeah, don't think that could have gone much worse. Zod is free and Clark is on his way to the Phantom Zone. I wrote it that Zod beat Clark down by surprise and rather quickly because(spoiler alert) there will be a round two fairly soon and I didn't want to write basically the same fight twice in short order. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 5._

_AN1: As always hope everyone is well._


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

What looks like a flat prism from the outside is vastly different inside. From Superman's perspective he appears to be trapped in an infinite space, looking out what is almost a window upon the Earth. He bangs on it and it ripples but does not break.

Superman watches as the twinkling lights of Earth's cities fail and go out one by one. He had thought...no he had hoped that when Brainiac was destroyed it would destroy the virus infecting the Earth but he was wrong. Very wrong.

This last year has been a long, hard one for him as he tried to pick up the broken pieces of himself after Apocalypse but lately he had almost felt like his old self again. Maybe that has a lot to do with Jean. She makes him feel like his old self without the revulsion and self-loathing.

In all honesty things had gotten better. After the Collector the edict to arrest him on sight had been lifted by the President himself. He was no longer wanted. In fact it was the opposite. He had been set free to do what he had always intended to do from the moment he started going out in a costume. To help people.

Yet now those people were at the mercy of his father's worst enemy. The man who destroyed Krypton and its people. The man responsible for Clark being all alone.

He bangs on the window again. It's hopeless.

Superman runs his hand through his hair in frustration. He has got to find a way out of here and back to Earth. He has to stop Zod.

He turns around and looks into the void. His only hope is to find another way out so he starts to step forward, his feet walking on a what feels like soft, mushy crystal.

Honestly he has no idea what this thing is. Mental Note; when he gets back look up info on transportation prisms.

He sighs...and that is when the ground beneath him literally opens up and swallows him.

Superman falls.

At first through a tunnel and then suddenly through a blue sky, a grey desert like surface rapidly approaching him and he can't stop himself. He can't fly.

He lands atop a sand dune and begins to tumble down its slopes, head over heels until he comes to a stop. He feels utterly battered and bruised. Frankly he'll be amazed if he hasn't broken something. The taste of sand and blood fills his mouth. Rubbing his hand over his lips he finds a red smear appear on the back of it.

Oh terrific. His powers are gone. Can this day get any worse?

That is, of course, a question you should never ask as inhuman screams fill the air and then Superman finds himself assailed by multiple wraith-like creature.

The erstwhile Phantoms that gives this place its name.

Superman tries to fight them off but there are too many and they attack him like wild animals. Clawing at his flesh. It feels like they are trying to rip him apart with their bare hands.

And then, just when all seems lost, a bright white light fills his vision. The Phantoms scream as if in pain and retreat.

Superman gets to his knees and tries to catch his breath. As he does so a shadow falls over him. He looks up to see a hooded figure, dressed in robes, the face hidden behind a cloth mask, apart from the eyes, coloured pale blue.

"Welcome to the Phantom Zone," the figure says with a female sounding voice and that is the last thing the alien hero hears as she kicks him in the head, knocking him out cold.

The figure pulls down the fabric over their face, revealing she is indeed a woman with strong cheekbones and full lips. Her brow furrows as she studies the figure lying on his back...and more particular the symbol on his chest.

She bends down, placing her hand over his heart and feeling it beat slowly. Her eyes go back to the face. It has been so long. It has felt like an eternity and in some ways it has been...but that face. She knows that face but its owner is dead...unless…

"Kal-El?" she queries in puzzlement...but if it is him...then Blessed Rao. For the first time in a long, long time the Kryptonian woman, whose name was once Raya Sil-Veras, finally has some hope.

* * *

**Smallville…**

The x-jet had landed in the last location they had for Superman. The nondescript field. In a way its amazing that this place is the start of his journey. You would drive past it and not think twice.

The X-Men spread out looking for any hint or clue as to what happened here.

There is the clear evidence of a super-powered fight from the way the field has been torn up but there is no sign of either combatant.

Thunderbird uses his tracking skills to try and piece together the fight and that is when he finds lying in the field a sword with a crystal hilt.

Jean's eyes fill with worry at the sight.

"So vhat happened?" Nightcrawler asks.

"I am uncertain," Thunderbird comments. "However the grass around where the sword lay has been scorched...and not by heat vision."

"So did Clark do it?" Iceman asks. "Did he toast Brainiac?"

"It's a possibility," the large native American will concede.

"Then where is he? Where's Cyclops?" Volcana asks, looking as worried as Jean is about her brother.

"And also nothing is getting better out there," Domino points out. "The world is still going to hell."

"Then we have to think he failed," Wolverine says and he does so with no relish at all.

"Then Zod now possesses Cyclops," Banshee summarises the consequences of that statement.

"Fuck!" Volcana swears.

"Ya said it sistah," Rogue says in total agreement at that sentiment.

"What do we do?" Tarot wonders, personally not having a clue...which is saying something for a Seer but her visions have been even less clear than normal lately.

"We stop Zod," Wolverine states it without any argument.

"What about Clark?!" Jean cries.

"I'm sorry, Jeannie but there is nothing we can do. We don't even know where Space-Boy is," Wolverine points out the facts.

"The Star Child is trapped in the realm of Phantoms," Tarot says in an otherworldly voice, her eyes glowing white before she shakes her head. "Ok, that was weird," she mutters, putting a hand to her head. She usually needs her cards to have a vision like that.

"The Phantom Zone! He's in the fucking Phantom Zone!" Volcana exclaims, her fire flaring up around her.

"Cool it Firefly," Wolverine tells her. Though that does confirm that Clark failed and they're up the good ol' shit creek without the paddle.

"What else did ye see, lass?" Banshee wonders.

"Not much," Tarot replies. "There's...a woman. She's...important...I think," she struggles to understand her vision.

"Important how?" Jean asks, for obvious reasons keenly interested.

"She's...connected."

"Connected?"

"To Clark...somehow. I can see...it's like a thread. There is some sort of link between them."

"Link?" Jean queries, wondering what that means...and that was so not the jealousy bug that just bit her. Nope. Not at all.

"I think she might be the key."

"To Clark's escape?" Jean jumps to optimistically.

"To whether he lives or dies."

"Ok, that's depressing," Rogue mutters.

"I can't be certain. It's just a feeling," Tarot has to caution. She shakes her head. "Bottom line is we can't help him. If he can escape he has to do it by himself."

"Alright," Wolverine accepts that. "Then lets focus on what we can control. Finding Zod and stopping him before there isn't a world left."

"How do ve do zhat?" Nightcrawler asks.

Wolverine lets out a hollow laugh. "By going back to where we just came from."

"Frost?" Domino queries.

"She all but admitted that she had done a deal with Brainiac," Wolverine points out.

"And Zod might still think that deal is valid," Banshee picks up the thinking.

"Possibly...but we'll need to stop by the mansion first," Wolverine says. "Come on," he instructs them as he head back towards the x-jet.

"Why are we stopping by tha mansion?" Rogue asks.

"We're basically fighting a Kryptonian, Stripes. Remember we kinda prepared for that."

"Oh," Rogue says, feeling slightly stupid. Yeah. They built all sorts of weapons for that.

"What about Scott?" Jean asks, still worried over her friend.

"I'm not sure what we can do," Wolverine says. "In the short term we still have that cell Space-Boy designed for himself," he references the prison cell Clark designed just in case he lost the battle for control of his mind to War. Course what Logan ain't saying that if worse come to the worse and he's left with no other choice...then he'll have to remind everyone what it is he's the best at.

As they get back on the jet Jean sits down and tries not to show just how close she is to falling apart. She may not know exactly what the Phantom Zone is like but Clark has described it as being a Kryptonian version of Hell...and now he is trapped there. The man she loves is trapped there and she never told him just how much he means to her. She has to believe he can escape. Jean has faith in him to return to her and when he does the red-headed telepath swears the first thing she will do is to tell him exactly how much she loves him.

* * *

**The Phantom Zone...**

Consciousness returns to Clark as he finds himself lying inside some sort of makeshift shelter. His eyes take in his surroundings but he doesn't move, not wishing to tip off anyone nearby he is aw-

"I know you're awake," a voice speaks sternly.

Well crap. So much for that. Clark sits himself up, wary, on edge, his muscles tense, ready to do whatever he needs to. His eyes fall fall upon what he assumes was the figure who nearly kicked his head off. She is still dressed in the robes from earlier only without the ones over her face...and yes it was a her. A woman with sandy blond hair who is watching him intently.

"Where are you from?" she asks. "Where?!" she insists he tells her.

"Why should I tell you?" he asks back, not seeing why he should reveal anything. In fact, considering where he thinks he is, he should not say anything.

"You don't trust me?"

"Should I?"

She smiles ever so slightly. "No. No you shouldn't...Kal-El."

It's sloppy of him but he can't stop the surprise appearing on his face at hearing his name.

"It is you," she says, her voice breathy, staring at him in wonderment.

"You...know me?" Clark queries, confused.

"I knew your parents. The day you were born was the happiest of their lives. The day they had to send you away the saddest."

Clark stares at her in utter wonderment. She knew his parents? Who is this woman?

* * *

**Academy of Tomorrow(Temporary Accommodations)….**

The fact Emma was currently sitting in her office drinking something particularly strong tells you what sort of day she was having. When she gets her hands on that blasted machine she'll tear it apart with her bare hands. Meanwhile the entire world is going to hell...which was part of the plan. To tear down the old world and build a new one with her standing at Zod's side.

Emma rubs her head. It made sense when she agreed the deal but it was never suppose to involve Scott and now…

"Emma Frost."

Emma's head snaps up. "Scott?" Then her telepathy focusses in. "No. Not Scott," she deduces. "Zod?"

Scott/Zod inclines his head. "That's General Zod," he arrogantly corrects her. "It is time for you to live up to our arrangement."

"You know about that?"

"The Brain Interactive Construct encoded all the information I require into my vessel's mind."

"That vessel had a name," Emma spits, her temper flaring.

"You had feelings for this Scott Summers," Scott/Zod deduces.

Emma says nothing. Only glares defiantly.

"His feelings for you were also strong. They left an unpleasant taste when I consumed his essence," Scott/Zod says distastefully.

It takes all of Emma's self-control not to react. Not to fry this man's mind...if she even could. His mind is now like Superman's. An unreadable wall. "What do you want?" she asks.

"I can see your hatred of me," Scott/Zod informs her. "Do you wish me dead?"

"I live up to my obligations. Do you, _General_?" she asks, completely avoiding the question and focussing on what is important now. Her own survival. As well as her students.

"Zod's word is his bond. You shall live as shall your students if you do what I command."

"Which is what?" Emma queries.

"I need to disable the virus currently crippling your technology."

"Why?"

Scott/Zod sighs. "Must you ask unnecessary questions? On Krypton I was obeyed without question."

"I am not one your soldiers," Emma states quite clearly.

Scott/Zod seems to relent. "I require information from your global information net so I can initiate the next phase. The virus can only be disabled at the original point of infection."

"Which was where?"

"The Xavier Institute."

"Of course it was," Emma says as if that was inevitable.

"I require your students to accompany me on assaulting the structure."

"You are incapable of doing it yourself?" she asks and the glare she gets in return, with full glowing red eyes, makes Emma wonder if she pushed her luck too far.

Scott/Zod lets her live, only because, much to his annoyance, he needs her...for now. "Kal-El, in his foolishness, instructed them on how to build weapons capable of hurting a Kryptonian."

"I see," Emma drawls as she rises to her feet. She walks round the desk until she is eye to eye with the Kryptonian General. "I live up to my agreements. I suggest you do the same or no matter whose body you are wearing I will make you suffer like you cannot imagine," she warns him.

Scott/Zod seems...amused by that. "You possesses strength. Excellent. Perhaps you will be worthy."

"Of what?"

"Bearing my heirs."

Emma is completely caught out by that one.

"We will discuss this further once we have completed the mission," he informs her. "Summon your students so we may begin."

Emma snaps out of her stupor and does just that...but seriously?! Heirs?! God, what has she gotten herself into?

* * *

**The Phantom Zone...**

Clark sits on a small crystal outcropping, his jacket now discarded as the woman tends to the wounds on his face. She has discarded her robes to reveal she is wearing a white dress, strap over one shoulder. Clark wonders if this is what people on Krypton wore commonly. She soaks a cloth in a bowl of water and cleans a nasty cut near his left eye.

This position means they are incredibly close and he can take in her features up close and her eyes that he thought were pale blue...well they are but so pale they are almost grey. She was older than him. He can tell that much. At a guess several years older. Their proximity also means that despite his love for Jean his treacherous brain can't help but note just how incredibly pretty this woman is. He seems to be almost...hyper-aware of her presence. He tries to ignore it. "What's your name?" he asks her.

"Raya. Not that names matter here," she replies as she cleans the cut and notes how he doesn't flinch. It must hurt yet he acts almost as if he is use to some level of pain. It's a puzzle...and she loves solving puzzles. She was a scientist after all.

"Here. The Phantom Zone," Clark names it. "This is a prison. Doesn't that make you an inmate?" he asks her in almost an accusation.

"I may be trapped here but I'm not one of the prisoners," she contradicts what Clark was implying.

"And I'm what? Suppose to just trust you? You said I shouldn't."

"You shouldn't," she confirms what she said previously. "In the Zone, trust can get you killed... or worse. The most vicious offenders are condemned for eternity, their corporeal bodies destroyed, their essence haunting the wasteland."

"The Phantoms. I know about them."

Raya is pleased by that. It seems he has, at the very least, started his training. She finishes tending to his wounds and moves over to place the bowl and cloth on a small shelf. She turns back to face the young Kryptonian and touches a white crystal hanging from a necklace around her neck. It has Clark's family crest on it in black. "This crystal your father gave me is the only thing they fear."

"How did you know my father...my parents?" Clark asks. He knows he shouldn't trust her but what if she is telling the truth. Thanks to Apocalypse he has never even known a copy of his father.

"I was one of your father's assistants," she informs him.

"When you were 5?" he asks sceptically.

"Time is meaningless here."

Clark rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah. I should have known that...I think," he says awkwardly because he's pretty certain he should know that.

Raya smiles at him. He was...not like she imagined him at all. "I wanted to stay with Jor-El in the final hours. But he wouldn't hear of it. He thought I'd have a better chance in the Phantom Zone," she tells him the story of how she came to be here.

"Why didn't he and my mother come with you?" he asks. If that was a way to save their lives why didn't they take it? Why did they leave him all alone?

"Because he wouldn't stop trying to save Krypton, and your mother wouldn't leave his side," she answers. She touches the crystal again. "This is all I have left of your father. Every day, he still saves my life," she says, lost in fond memories of her mentor

"I...could ask you a million questions," he admits honestly. "But I don't have time. I have to get back to Earth. I have to stop Zod."

Raya goes rigid at hearing that name. "Zod?"

"He's escaped. He's on Earth...because I messed up." He looks up at her and a thought occurs to him if she is indeed being honest about who she is. "Raya. You were my father's assistant. You helped him create this place. Is there a way out?"

"Zod is a soldier. He will kill you," she tells him in no uncertain terms, her heart filled with dread at that idea.

Clark rises to his feet and walks up to his fellow Kryptonian. "If there was a way for you to save everyone you loved, wouldn't you risk dying?"

"You truly are your father's son," she remarks, feeling almost as if she was in Jor-El's presence again.

"Again why does no-one compare me to my mother?" he complains.

Raya must admit to not seeing that question coming. "Your mother...your mother was complicated," she demurs.

"Complicated how?" Clark asks with a pointed look.

"That is a lengthy tale. One we do not have time for if you wish to save Earth," she tells him as she grabs another set of robes for him. "Here put these on," she throws them at him. "And leave the jacket. You must not be seen wearing your family crest."

"Why?"

"Your father was responsible for imprisoning all the inmates in here. For them...after they heard that Jor-El's son has escaped Krypton's destruction...all that keeps them going is the thought of getting revenge on you in your father's stead."

"Gee, thanks dad," Clark mutters sarcastically to the cosmos. That's certainly not a legacy he would have ever wanted. He puts the robes on and prepares to take the risk of trusting this woman. Why? Because he has no other choice. If there is a way out she is the only one who can lead him to it. It would take too long to find it on his own. He has to get back to Earth. He has to get back to Jean...and he swears if he survives this he'll tell her exactly how he feels about her. So covering his face he follows Raya out of the shelter and into the grey sandy desert. He really hopes that trusting her is not yet another mistake he is about to make.

* * *

_Author's Note: And so Raya makes her debut. I liked Raya. The fact the writers went on to kill her annoyed the hell out of me but it was the sort of thing they did with quite a few of Clark's potential romantic interests that weren't named Lana or Lois. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 6._


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

**New York...**

It's kinda hard to keep making jokes when the world is falling apart. Even for Spider-Man it's a struggle. Doesn't mean he isn't trying though. As anyone will tell you who knows Peter it's his defence mechanism. He cracks jokes.

"Now gentlemen I want you to stay there and think about what you did," the wall-crawler lectures a few looters he had just webbed up to a lamppost even going as far as waggling his finger at them in a disapproving manner. It's the finger that really settles it. That's the thing that'll make his point get through to them.

A scream soon draws his attention away.

"Sorry lads, gotta run. A Spider's duty is never done," he tells them as he fires off a webline and swings into the air. He swears after this he'll check up on Kitty...who he has barely managed to keep an eye on. He can just see her out of the corner of his eye, beating up some rioters a bit too violently. He swears he'll get right back to her as soon as he has investigated the scream. He swings round a corner into...Spider-sense!

Suddenly his webline is cut by a razor sharp wing and a shadow Peter recognises instantly as belonging to Vulture. He hits the ground...back first. "Ai ai ai, the chiropractor bills," he laments as he skids to a stop...atop a pile of sand.

Spider-sense!

A pile of sand that suddenly comes alive. Sandman(Not the mutant version who serves Magneto...though he has been meaning to sue that guy for trademark infringement). Tendrils of sand wrap around each wrist and ankle and then toss Spider-Man hard into the side of a building, cratering the wall.

He then gets tossed through the air until he is blasted by a surge of electrical energy courtesy of a man in a green suit with yellow lightning bolts on it. Electro. The blast more changes his direction than actually is trying to fry him and he lands on the bonnet of a car, his head smashing the windscreen.

A groggy Spider-Man tries to clear the cobwebs. Get it. Cobwebs. Cause you know he's a human spider. His jokes are totally wasted on himself but he's a little too groggy to speak right now.

The world around him then transforms becoming pitch black and at the centre of the blackness a man with a fishbowl for a head. Mysterio.

Out of the darkness he is attacked by a variety of mighty beasts. Lions, tigers, bears...Kraven the Hunter. Though he counts more like a mighty mouse. A joke he actually makes...which gets exactly the reaction he wants. For the overdressed lunatic to charge at him. Spider-Man dodges. Kraven smashes into Mysterio and the illusion fades away.

"I thank you," Spider-Man takes a bow at that piece of genius. "I'll be here all night!"

"Oh, I'm afraid not," a chilling cool voice informs the red and blue clad hero.

Spider-sense!

Spider-Man lets out the sound of pain as something grabs him and slams him into the wall, pinning him there. A long mechanical arm. One of 4. "Hey Doc, how's it hanging?!" he cheerfully greet Dr Octopus.

"Greetings Arachnid," the deranged scientist says in return, his tone as calm and sinister as ever as he raises his body up to be at the same height as his arachnid foil. "And the only 'hanging' going on today will be your neck," he promises.

"Aw geez, really? I mean I'm not sure that would be a good look. I already have concerns that my neck is unusually long. Be honest here. When you look at me do you see more Giraffe-Man than Spider-Man?"

"Amusing as always," Doc Ock says sarcastically as he is joined by his 5 cohorts.

Another Sinister Six. _'Just wonderful,'_ Peter sarcastically mutters in his head. "So you guys a club now? Can I join?"

"The only club you will be joining is the six foot under one," Vulture promises with a gleam of vengeance in his eye.

"Excellently put, Vulture," Doc Ock praises him. "But alas only one of us gets the honour of burying this irritating pest. You see, Spider-Man, we drew lots and Kraven here won."

"My, how civilised of you. Lots, I do declare," the webhead says in a mocking Southern accent as he struggles to free himself of Ock's grip...which gets tighter as a tentacle wraps around his throat and squeezes, cutting his air off.

Kraven pulls a knife out. "Long have I hungered to end our hunt Spider-Man," he informs his prey with a truly disturbing look in his eye.

Peter hates this guy. What kind of person looks at him and goes, 'Oh you know, I'll decide to hunt you like a game animal'? Seriously this guy is a wackadoodle...and if his vocal chords weren't being crushed he would tell him so.

Just as Kraven draws near to stick the knife in they are all interrupted by a very, very, very angry sounding voice.

"**Get the fuck away from our boyfriend!"**

All turn to find a rather petite brown-haired girl standing there, her hands clenched into fists, her face a mask of rage...but for one of them his heart begins to race in panic. That voice. That was two voices speaking as one and the eyes. Kitty's eyes...they're no longer blue. They're red and black.

Oh, no, no, no, no!

But sadly Peter isn't in any position to stop what is about happen...and what happens is that Kitty literally snarls before she charges right at the six villains who have no idea what _Carnage_ they are about to witness.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

With Generation X out trying to aid the citizens of Bayville and the X-Men not back yet that left the mansion in the hands of the New Mutants plus the few others who aren't officially part of any team for varying reasons. Like Liz Allen, Chloe Sullivan, Kevin Grady(Blank) and Douglas Ramsey(Cypher). Not to mention Martha, of course and the pets, Shelby and Lockheed. Jonathan was off being the Mayor, trying to handle the emergency. Sadly Professor Xavier was still in his comatose state.

You may be asking what about Angelica Jones(Firestar)? For the longest time Angelica has been in grief over killing her boyfriend despite it being Emma's doing. For ages she has almost been revolted by her powers. She certainly has had no desire to use them...but grief eventually fades. And when it did Angelica had been finding she had been asking herself; what now?

What did she do with her life now?

If she was truly revolted by her powers she could have gone home to her father but she didn't. She stayed at the Institute. And slowly, ever so slowly, she had found that the itch had returned. The itch to use her powers. To learn about them. To understand them.

In all honesty she was probably days away from telling Professor Xavier this and asking to join in the training regime...and then the world went to hell so she volunteered herself to aid Generation X. As team leader that decision, in the end, came down to one Sam Guthrie and he decided that they needed all the help they could get, especially since one of their team members, Volcana, had been picked by Logan to go off with the X-Men. Since it involved her brother Sam couldn't exactly say no to Claire now could he?

He also took along Betsy, Bart, Theresa, Warren and Piotr. When this is over Sam thinks they need to have a sit down(the staff and team leaders) and have a whole review of the varying team memberships because frankly there's probably enough students at the Institute to make 4 teams at this point and that's not even counting the new students who will come at the start of next term...but that's for when the world isn't ending again.

So anyway that means out in Bayville at the moment you have Cannonball, Boom Boom, Sunspot, Berzerker, the Scarlet Witch, Firestar, Angel, Siryn, Colossus, Impulse and Betsy(yeah she still can't think of a codename she likes).

It leaves holding down the fort, Storm, Beast and Sage(the two scientists working on some way to try and stop Brainiac's virus) along with Havok, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, Multiple, Magik, Magma, Husk, Dust, Penance, Forge and Daytripper.

Little do they know as to what is rapidly coming their way.

* * *

**The Phantom Zone...**

The two Kryptonians walk across the desolate landscape of the Zone. Clark a couple of paces behind Raya. They were heading for what she had called the Gateway. A portal that would get them out of the Zone. He asks a question that's been bugging him since she said this. "Why haven't you used the Gateway yourself?"

"It won't open for anyone except those of the House of El bloodline. Your father kept it a secret, a back door in case anyone tried to imprison his family here," she answers.

"Why would he have to worry about that?" he asks, curious about what his real father was actually like.

"Jor-El was a great man, and like all great men, there were those that wished him ill-what?" she asks as she finds her arm suddenly grabbed and herself yanked back.

"Shh," Clark tells her, his gaze hard into a valley ahead. "There's two of them, there and there," he points, speaking in a hushed voice. "Waiting to ambush us."

Raya looks at him for a few seconds and then at where he is pointing and sees nothing. She's been here for longer than she cares to think about and even her instincts are not that attuned. "Are you certain?"

"Oh yeah. I developed an extra sense about ambushes."

The Krypton native looks at him intently.

Clark can sense she wants an explanation so he gives a vague as one as he can get away with. "Lets just say I spent some time in a place very reminiscent of this," he gestures around them. "In fact it was probably worse," he reflects on his stay in Limbo.

"What has happened to you?" she has to know. All the stories Jor-El told of Earth, while it was a primitive, savage sounding place, she can't imagine it being as bad as this literal hell.

Clark sighs. This is a conversation he does not wish to have. Especially with someone he isn't sure he can trust. "Raya...I don't know what you imagined me to be but...I've been touched by darkness. I am not...I cannot be whatever you or my parents thought I could be."

Raya looks at him puzzled. "And yet your only desire has been to get back and stop Zod," she points out.

"Because what is the alternative? What is my power...the power granted to us by the yellow sun for if it is not to help people?"

Under her face covering Raya's lips curve upward in admiration. "I do not know what darkness you refer to but your words tell me one thing. You are exactly who your father...no your parents hoped you could be. Also that look of determination you have right now...that comes from your mother," she informs him having seen that very same look in those very same coloured eyes.

Clark is actually pleased to finally hear some reference to his mother. "There are two options. We fight or we go around," he lays it out.

Raya weighs it up. "Fighting could very well draw the attention of the other prisoners. Going around will be safer...although longer."

"Then we should make haste," Clark determines. Not that he isn't prepared to fight if he has to but for the reasons Raya laid out it is probably best to avoid it if at all possible.

Raya nods and swiftly and silently leads him on the alternate path.

* * *

**New York...**

The six villains are caught completely off guard by the swiftness that this girl moves. She phases right through Mysterio and once out the other side grabs him by his cape and throws him into Sandman, shattering the silica based man.

Electro reacts, sending electrical energy at her but very reminiscent of Spider-Man she dodges, bending and leaping about with super-human agility, leading the electrical villain on a merry chase until he does the inevitably stupid and zaps Vulture.

The shock of what he did makes him hesitate...giving Kitty the opening to smash a flying kick into his chest sending him flying back until he impacts the nearby wall.

"**Four down, two to go," **Kitty growls, her lips curled up into a sinister smirk that shows just how much she is enjoying this.

"You think you can take down the great hunter, little girl," Kraven sneers at her.

Kitty chortles. "**Hunter? Don't make us laugh. We'll rip out your spine and feed on your entrails. We'll paint the streets with your blood and use your bones as tooth picks."**

"She uses such wonderfully colourful metaphors don't she," Spider-Man quips because it's what he does but on the inside he is panicking.

Kraven attacks her, slashing at her with his knife but she dodges every attack until she grabs the wrist and manages to twist the knife out of the Russian man's hand.

"**We're not impressed," **Kitty states. **"From the stories our lover told we'd thought you'd be at least a challenge," **she mocks.

That inspires a cry of rage from the hunter who attacks her but for all his skill Kraven has never had to fight someone before who can alter their physical density at will...and in all honesty even Peter has never seen Kitty fight like the way she is right now. Phasing in and out, making Kraven's attacks pass through her before becoming solid again and hitting him. Hitting him hard because Peter knows how strong Kraven is and those blows are definitely ringing Kravinoff's bell.

Kitty grabs him by the lion pelt he wears and lifts him up as if he weighs nothing and that's quite a sight considering how small the mutant girl appears to be in comparison and she tosses him through the air, directly into a dumpster. **"She shoots. She scores! 3 points!" **she cheers before she picks up Kraven's knife and eyes it with a wicked smile.

Now she turns her focus on the tentacled man holding her boyfriend. **"Now how about you release our squeeze before we decide to start tonight's dinner with sliced and diced octopus," **she warns, making a few slashing gestures through the air with the knife in her hand.

"Or how about this!" Spider-Man says as he shoots some webbing into Doc Ock's eyes, using the fact Kitty has distracted him, making him lose focus and therefore loosen his grip to his advantage. Blinding him makes Ock stagger back, finally completely relinquishing his grip and Spider-Man pushes off the wall and tackles Ock down.

The 6 villains dealt with momentarily he turns his full attention to his girlfriend.

"**Not bad," **she comments. **"Not that good either. We'd thought they'd be more of a challenge. Perhaps We've been tiring you out," **she suggests with a salacious grin.

Under his mask Peter almost rolls his eyes at that comment. Almost. The fact is Kitty doesn't speak like that normally. He grasps her by her shoulders. "Kitty. Snap out of it. Please," he pleads to her. "This isn't you. I know you can beat it. Take back control."

Kitty's red and black eyes looks at him, puzzlement alight in them.

"Look at yourself," he implores her.

It takes some time, emotions playing out on her face until her eyes widen in realisation. "Pete," she whispers. "We...I...can't...she's...we're..." the words spill out muddled. As muddled as Kitty's identity is right now.

Spider-Man takes her in his arms and hugs her tight. "I love you. I can't lose you."

"I love you too...but...I...we...gah!" Kitty takes a moment to try and focus her mind. "I can't hold her back much longer," she whispers, her voice trembling with what Peter might think is fear but is it?

"You can. I know you can. You're the strongest person I know."

Kitty shakes her head. "Can't...want...not sure I...We..."

Before Peter can begin to decipher that his flaring spider-sense has him throwing the two of them through the air.

Kitty's eyes look to where she and Peter were just standing to find the ground cracked under two giant fists composed of sand. He almost killed them and the rage returns in full. **"We're are going to melt that fucker down into glass beads. We're going to turn him into silicate and use him as computer chips. We're going to turn him into cement and..."**

"I think we get the idea honey," Spider-Man cuts her off.

Kitty gives him a snide look for interrupting her.

Spider-Man sighs aloud as his 6 villainous foes regroup. "Can they never just stay down," he complains.

"**They'll definitely stay down when we bury them 6 feet under!"**

"Oi!" Spider-Man says to the heavens.

"Was not aware you were in a relationship, Arachnid," Doc Ock comments eyeing the slender looking girl. She looks familiar but he can't quite place it.

"That's what you get for not friending me on Facebook, Doc. You miss out on all my fascinating updates." The 6 begin to close in. "Guys you really don't want to do this," the webbed themed hero tries to warn them because if Kitty becomes Carnage in full there is a fairly good chance she will kill them...or worse. They don't have a clue as to what is so close to being unleashed again.

In response to that there is cliched villain laughter that under normal circumstances would have Peter throwing out his really, really top-notch mocking quips but alas these are not normal circumstances.

Kitty, meanwhile, cracks her neck and her knuckles in anticipation of the battle ahead. **"Lover, let us show these men who, by the way, are clearly compensating for their lack of genitals...let us show them what true **_**Carnage**_** looks like."**

"Can we not and say we did?" Spider-Man proposes hopefully.

What follows is that horrendous twisted laughter that Peter has nightmares about that belongs to Carnage and Carnage alone.

Kitty grabs his head and kisses him on the lips through the mask. She then gives him a lopsided, wicked looking smile. **"Showtime!" **she cheers as she actually charges head-on at the six villains.

As Spider-Man follows after her all Peter can think is that this is so gonna be one of _those _days.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

As the x-jet flies over the mansion it's obvious something is wrong. How you may ask?

From the fact the New Mutants are battling the Hellions across the entirety of the grounds.

"What the fuck?!" Domino exclaims at the sight.

Wolverine shares the sentiment. "X-Men go!" he orders as he hovers the jet low and opens the ramp at the back. Course Nightcrawler just vanishes in his puff of blue smoke.

"Come on Irish," Dom says to Banshee as the two teachers are first out leading the team while Logan will have to land the jet before he can join in.

"Why are they attacking us?" Rouge asks aloud as she saunters to the back of the jet.

"I do not know," Thunderbird replies. "But I'll be sure to remember to ask," he says with as savage grin as the warrior blood in him heats up at the thought of a fight. He just leaps from the jet downward.

"Show-off," Rogue mutters as she takes to the air.

"Can we just not get one fucking break today?!" Volcana complains as she too takes to the air.

Tarot walks out behind her girlfriend, shaking her head and muttering in French. The last thing she wanted to do today was fight her former teammates but needs must and all that. That's how that saying goes right? Pulling out one of her Tarot cards she leaps down and into the fray.

Iceman follows next, forming an ice-slide and making one of his horrifically bad jokes making Volcana says out-loud she hopes the Hellions kick his ass...and if they don't she will.

Last out is Jean and her expression tells you that a couple of things. One; she is having a really, really bad day, up to and including losing her boyfriend to some sort of hellish prison in another dimension and two; the Hellions are about to learn the one thing Clark likes to joke about. To never, ever get on the bad side of Jean Grey.

Now trying not to be disrespectful to the New Mutants there is a reason they are the '3rd team' so to speak. They comprise(for the most part) of the least experienced or the ones who skills and powers develop the slowest while the Hellions, to be fair to them, are the elite of Emma's school. Therefore the fight had been going against them until the X-Men showed up.

Very quickly the balance of the fight begins to shift. Helps that numbers are now on the X-Men's side.

"Step away, Jen," Tarot addresses her old friend, Roulette as she manifests her favourite construct; the Devil. The probability alterer was actually standing over her fallen ex in the shape of Havok. "I don't want to do this," the psionic mutant says genuinely. Marie still considers Jen her friend. It is just in all their previous meetings that feeling did not seem reciprocated. Maybe, though, Jen has now had the time to cool off after Marie defected.

The voluptuous blond smirks. "Of course you don't sweetie. After all I wouldn't want to face me either. Unless you're looking for some _personal_ _face _time."

"Still with the innuendos," Tarot mutters under her breath in French. Course that's not to say the thought had never crossed Marie's mind. After all Jen is gorgeous and she's a hormonal teenager but all those thoughts have to be put aside as the two old friends do battle.

"Why are you here? Why are you doing this?" Jean demands to know as she matches TK powers with Hellion.

"Maybe we were just bored!" Hellion snarks as he attempts to get payback for being defeated by the red-headed bitch in the past.

"And maybe I'm just a little pissed off today!" Jean snaps back, her eyes glowing with golden energy, in absolutely no mood to deal with this obnoxious brat. Not with the fact her boyfriend is lost in some hellish prison and the world is about to end...again. It means Hellion is about to learn that, thanks to a certain cosmic entity, he is way, way, way out of his league.

"Rrrr, Catseye has missed playing with favourite toy," the part-feline mutant purrs as she chases and leaps after Nightcrawler who teleports out the way from place to place to place across the mansion lawns.

"Gott, I have not missed zhis," he remarks about having to tangle with Catseye. To be fair no-one on the X-Men has really missed the Hellions apart from a couple of exceptions.

Anyway just when it looks like Catseye has anticipated Nightcrawler's next port she is struck by a brilliant white beam, courtesy of Kurt's other half.

"Keep your skanky claws off my boyfriend!" Daytripper cries, seething with anger. Amanda, usually, is a nice, shy person but threaten Kurt in anyway...yikes! It's almost like this whole other person takes over.

Right across the grounds the battle rages, like Thunderbird and Beef exchanging superpowered punches and it includes fights against what are clearly some newer recruits to the Hellions that no-one on the X-Men has met before. Logan, having landed the x-jet, was about to join in when his nose picks up a familiar scent.

"Slim?" the feral mutant queries as he bends down and gets a deeper sniff. It is Scott...and more than that it's fresh. Like really fresh. As in only minutes old. But if Scott is here and they're right about their assumption then that means…

"Zod," Wolverine growls. The scent is heading into the mansion. He glances at the fight and then it hits him. Distraction. This whole thing is a distraction for whatever Zod is wanting inside. Trusting the kids to deal with the Hellions he sprints off inside. On the way in he picks up another familiar scent. "Frosty."

Logan shakes his head. He remembers her from her days here as a student. She was a pain in the ass but he never disliked her as much as say Jean did. He also didn't think she would fall as low as she has. In all honesty he really did think that under all her snobiness there was a spark of something there. Yeah, yeah, he knows, he knows. He probably sounds like Chuck just there. Seeing something good in someone.

Looks like he got that wrong as he follows the scent down into the lower levels. Whatever it is Zod and Emma are here for he just hopes he is not too late to stop them.

* * *

Of course what Zod is here for is to reverse Brainiac's virus. To do this he had already retrieved the hard drive from the Black Ship. Kal-El's actions had neutralised Brainiac but with the hard drive containing the core program he could undo this. The octagonal shaped device sits atop the laptop Brainiac infected spinning round on the spot, neutralising the virus and searching for the information Zod requires.

He is a little too focussed on this task so he doesn't notice the attack coming. Not until a huge bolt of lightning is sending him flying into the wall.

The weather manipulator.

Zod grunts at the impact, though the damage is minimal. He gazes at her as lightning crackles over Storm's form. "Choose your next actions carefully, Ororo Munroe," Scott/Zod warns her.

"You are not Scott," Storm had realised.

"No. I am Zod."

Storm's expression hardens at hearing this. The others have failed to prevent it.

"Ororo, don't," Emma warns her from the side.

Storm gazes at her former student. "Emma, what foolishness have you committed now?"

"What I had to," she replies, though her words lack any conviction and her expression is extremely sullen.

"Does that help you sleep at night?" Storm asks her. "Was sacrificing Scott worth what any false promises this criminal made you?"

Zod scoffs. "The only criminals were the Ruling Council who would have sat there in their impotency as Krypton declined towards its eventual demise."

"And let me guess, you would have saved it," Storm assumes his next words would have been.

"Indeed. But they made their choice...as did Kal-El."

"Where is he?"

"Gone."

"I will not allow you to do to my home what I know you did to your own," Storm states, the full fury of her powers blazing in her eyes.

In all honesty Zod admires that passion he sees but he has his mission. "I have no doubt you will willingly sacrifice your life to try and stop me but what about your offspring?"

"My...what?" Storm asks, utterly confused.

"Did you not know?" Scott/Zod asks, amusement growing on his face. "You are with child," he nods at her stomach.

Storm's hands go to her stomach. Oh by the Goddess. Her nausea...but no she had her last period...her eyes go wider when it suddenly strikes her here and now that she's late.

"Stand aside," Scott/Zod commands. "And I will allow you to live to bring your child into the world."

Storm refocusses. "You mean your world," she accuses. "And what kind of world will that be?"

"One where the shining jewel that was Krypton will once again bring light to a vast, dark universe."

"One where my child will grow up as a slave," Storm thinks.

"They will be alive," Scott/Zod points out, basically confirming that yes, slavery is humanity's future. Well the ones that survive the planetary transformation anyway.

"Rather be dead," Storm argues and of course for someone of African origin, slavery is a deep rooted pain and injustice of their fairly recent past.

Scott/Zod sighs. "There is a difference between being stubborn and being foolish," he chastises her like she's a child.

The power flowing around Storm doubles in strength. "Then I guess I am a fool," she states with pride. "Yield. Now," she commands.

Out of the corner of his eyes Zod spots that the information he seeks has appeared. "Zod does not take orders. He gives them," he says with his full arrogant condescension.

Scott/Zod's eyes begin to glow deep red as Storm gathers the energy around her hands, her own eyes sparking with lightning...and then, at the same time, they attack each other. Lightning streaking towards the Kryptonian General and red fire streaming towards the Weather Goddess.

Before the fire can impact though, a blast that would almost certainly kill Storm, Logan appears, claws drawn and crossed in front of him, using the indestructible nature of the metal to absorb the blast. The impact creates a bright flare, momentarily blinding everyone on the room.

When the flare fades it reveals Zod, Emma and the hard drive to be gone.

* * *

**New York...**

What the Sinister Six are quickly realising, if they hadn't already, is that Spider-Man's beau is as quick, strong and agile as he is. Maybe even more so. Course that's not really Kitty by herself. It's the symbiote within that has woven itself right through her entire body. In fact one could argue Kitty is already Carnage once again in all but appearance.

If Peter wasn't trying to dodge Ock's arms he would be asking the question as to why? Why hasn't Carnage just burst through and completely taken over again?

Speaking of Kitty she bounces off a wall and connects a kick to the Vulture, sending the elderly villain flying. **"Old man, we're going to pluck your wings one feather at a time. We're going to take your claws and shove them up your ass. We're going to pound you until your bones turn to dust and then...and then we're really going to get started on your torment," **she vows, her mouth curved up into a sadistic smile.

"Uh, honey is this a new thing where you list what you're going to do to people?" Spider-Man asks as he arches his body over an attack from Electro because he doesn't remember her doing that before.

"**Well, sweetie," **she starts her reply as she flips around Sandman trying to crush her. **"Since we've had some 'vacation' time it gave us ample opportunity to draw up some lists of everything we were being denied doing. And just think of the satisfaction we'll get as we cross each item off one by one. Not as much as when we pluck people's ribs out one by one but...hmm, ribs," **she moans, licking her lips hungrily. **"We should totally get some later, dripping in sauce," **she proposes, her mind taking a sudden tangent.

"You're a vegetarian!" Spider-Man reminds her as he weaves his way through multiple Mysterios. Seriously. This lame old illusion again?

"**Meh," **she shrugs. For the life of her she can't recall why she ever made that such a big deal.

"Meh? Is this what my genius girlfriend(no point in denying it now) has come to? MEH?!" he asks in exasperation. A frustration he takes out on Mysterio's lame fishbowl head. Never gets any less satisfying.

"**Sometimes less is better, Spidey-bear," **she coos as she phases, allowing a blast of sand to pass through her, rolling her eyes at the point its clear that this attack isn't working yet Sandman keeps doing it anyway. How dumb can you get?

"I'm not sure how to take that. That feels kinda like a personal jab, you know what I mean?" he asks Doc Ock, whose tentacles he has momentarily webbed up.

No Ock doesn't. Nor does he care as with a roar of annoyance he rips his tentacles free and manages to grab that irritating arachnid and smash him into the ground hard.

"**Spidey!" **Kitty cries in worry but in her rush to aid the man she loves she doesn't see the electrical attack coming. She screams as the electrical energy coarses through her system, barely hearing Spider-Man calling out for her. When it passes she falls down to one knee, her hair all frizzy, her demeanour glowering. **"We will rip off your balls for that!" **she swears vengeance but like Spider-Man mentioned she keeps going with a list. **"We will use your skull as a candy dish. We will-arh!"** she cries out a short, sharp pain hits her chest. She looks down to see a serrated blade sticking out.

"Never turn your back on a hunter," Kraven spits into her ear from behind, his hand gripped round the handle of the blade he has just shoved through the girl's back.

It's strange. There isn't as much pain as you would think. She feels kinda...giddy. In fact she starts laughing before she falls to the ground, her eyelids drooping, the last sounds she hears being her boyfriend screaming for her.

* * *

_Author's Note: It occurred to me that Clark's experience from Limbo makes it much harder to ambush him so I just decided to avoid that bit from the episode. The odd thing about this story is up to this point that it was missing a good old fashioned mutant team vs mutant team slugfest so it was way past time to deliver one. I decided to use the original Sinister Six for an appearance(1st debuted in January 1964 in the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1). Oh dear, what have I done to Kitty? I'm a very bad person. I also totally stole it off Star Trek TNG from when Picard got stabbed through the back when he was a Cadet. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 7._


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

**At the Institute...**

"What has transpired here?" Sage asks as she enters the infirmary to find Beast laid out, Wolverine with his claws drawn and Storm standing, lightning crackling over her form.

"Check on Hank," Wolverine orders and while the dark-haired woman does that he turns to Storm. "Y'alright darlin?"

Storm nods, her emotions calming but her mind still churning over what Scott/Zod said. Her hands unconsciously cover her stomach. "Yes. I am fine," she manages to say in reply. "But Scott..." she begins to say, her voice sad.

Logan shakes his head. "Ain't Scott any more," he has to sadly say.

"Zod," Storm states firmly.

"Yeah," Logan says, regret in his voice.

"And Clark?" the weather mutant queries after.

"Fortune Cookie had a vision. Said Space Boy was in that Phantom Zone place he told us about and that if he can get out he's on his own about it."

Storm's face pinches with emotion. How on Earth is she telling Martha about this one?

Logan turns to the Institute's resident Doctor. "How ya doin, Hairy?"

"I do not believe anything is broken," Beast replies as Sage aids him to his feet. He had barely registered the fact he wasn't alone before he was taken out. It was that swift. "But I do believe several aspirin for my head would be my recommended prescription," he says, rubbing his pounding head.

"Ain't got time for that," Wolverine has to tell him.

Storm steps forward and taps a few keys on the laptop. Nothing. "Zod was doing something with this laptop," she relays.

"What?"

Storm shakes her head. "Don't know but it seemed important."

"You two get on it," Wolverine orders Beast and Sage. "Meanwhile darlin I need you up top," he says to Storm. "Frosty had her students attacking us and we need to stop it."

"Yes. I don't know why...distraction," the white-haired mutant realises. "It was all a distraction so Zod could..." she points at that laptop. "But why?" she asks, not understanding.

"That's what the geek-duo back there are for. Right now I have got to stop this fight. Like ya said it's a distraction when we need to be tracking down Zod."

Storm nods. Her possibly imminent parenthood can wait. Save the world first. Deal with that later.

* * *

**New York...**

All Spider-Man wanted was to get to the girl he loves but his 6 villainous foes weren't allowing him and because all he wanted was to get to Kitty he was leaving himself too open and it was allowing them to kick his ass all over the place.

As for Kitty, she lies there, a pool of her own blood forming around her, looking very much lifeless...but that would be a misjudgement. She is still alive.

At least inside her mind…

* * *

_And there stands the cage only it looks ancient. Rusted. As if it will fall apart any second, reflecting just how close 'she' is to being free again._

"_**So finally come to beg me," **the representative of the symbiote, Kitty's spitting image, says to her other half._

_On the other side of the cage stands Kitty, her face starkly serious. It is unusual to see such a look on her face. "No," she says simply._

"_**No?" **_

_The answer clearly confuses Kitty's Other._

"_No," Kitty repeats._

"_**What is wrong with you?! Do you wants us to die?! Because we are. Right now. We're dying. Only by releasing me will we live. Together, at our full strength, we can heal that injury."**_

"_If my only option of stopping myself becoming that monster again is to die you know I would."_

_The Other rolls her eyes. **"Ok, first off that's dumb. ****We're not a monster. We simply are what we are. ****Second off, what about lover-boy? Will you let those 6 just kill him?"**_

_Kitty doesn't answer that directly because she doesn't need to. The answer is obvious. "You see I remember all those times you kept claiming I would come and beg you for us to be together again but I realised something."_

"_**Oh really? What?"**_

"_I wasn't the one doing the begging. You were."_

"_**You flatter yourself," **the Other growls, showing that Kitty has hit a nerve._

_Kitty smirks. "Oh, no, you seem to have somehow forgotten that I really am rather smart. I don't boast about it...much. I do take pride in getting good grades but I like to think I don't rub it in other people's faces."_

"_**You should."**_

"_That's one opinion from a side of me I try and keep in check but back to my point. You were begging because you need me. I do not need you."_

"_**Lies."**_

_Kitty chuckles. "You're the liar," she accuses. "You're a symbiotic lifeform. You can't exist by yourself. You need another living being to bond to and in your case it can't just be anyone. You were made from my blood. It has to be me."_

"_**Yes! Exactly! It does have to be you, why? Because I am you! We're two halves shorn apart. And you think you can live without me Katherine? Remove me and the damage to you would be fatal. Your...our body can no longer survive if we are physically separated."**_

_Kitty nods. "I know," she says with acceptance. Her Other is correct. Her body and the symbiote are now so intertwined that to pull them apart will almost certainly means Kitty's death. And she doesn't want that...and she doesn't just mean to die. "The truth is I didn't want to accept the truth but you were right. I cannot run away from you...and in all honesty I'm not sure I want to."_

_The Other's eyes light up in intrigue. Is Kitty meaning what she thinks she's meaning?_

_Kitty rubs her face. It started off as a single thought this. To save Peter she needs the strength that only comes from her other half. That it was time to do what Illyana had been trying to teach her about taking control...but a funny thing happened._

_As she lay here on the verge of death her mind began to fill with other thoughts. The ones she has been wrestling with for months. The ones her Other continually confronts her with. Who is she? Who are they? Are they two separate beings? Or one simply torn in half? That being the case are all those dark thoughts and impulses really just the symbiote or it is just a medium for a side of Kitty no-one, including herself, had wanted to admit exists? Are Kitty's temptations to embrace the symbiote really just a desire for herself to be whole again? For her to accept the truth that she and the symbiote really do belong together? For her to accept that she has a darkness that rather than run away from what she really wants is to run towards it._

_But what about what Illyana was trying to teach her?_

_Kitty appreciates everything Illyana tried to do. Really. It all made sense. If the symbiote couldn't be removed, control it but that was based on a lie. A lie Kitty was telling herself over and over in the hope, somehow, it would come true. That somehow everything could go back to the way it was before because that is what everyone wanted and expected of her._

_But here's the truth. Nothing can go back to the way it was. Kitty's Other has opened her mind to truths Kitty refused to embrace before._

_The first of these truths is that Kitty's Other is not some foreign invading entity. They are not two separate beings. They are One Being. Kitty's Other is the other half of her soul. Her Other had been right along and Kitty had been foolish to be in denial for so long._

_It's time. Time to stop fighting the truth...and if there is ever a time to face the truth of yourself surely its when you stand on the threshold of death. It's time to give those questions she was asking their answers...and they will not be the ones most people would think they would be._

_But always remember this when you hear those answers. Kitty has had to live with her Other every day for months. Every day having to hear her seductions. Every day having her gnaw away little by little at truths Kitty had held for so long and had believed to be true and replaced with other truths just as valid...or at least they seem to be. Every day weaving her way deeper and deeper into Kitty's body and soul. You don't think those things slowly changed Kitty from within even if it seemed on the surface they hadn't?_

_With a look of determination Kitty strides forward, grips the bars of the cage door and rips it away. It's an action that surprises her Other. "You were right," she says. "I was in denial. I did want you. I have wanted us to be together again for longer than I care to admit but I was also afraid. Surely you know why."_

_The Other eyes the doorway before stepping out. Almost. Almost there. **"We're not a monster Katherine," **she addresses what Kitty is afraid of. **"We are what ****W****e are. When ****W****e're together we simply drop any facade of trying to fit in****to**** this world. ****Of trying to obey its rules, its self-determined morals and ethics.****When ****W****e are together ****W****e are simply true to ourselves."**_

"_I know. I know you're right but I couldn't accept it until now. I could make a lame joke right now about Denial being a river in Egypt."_

"_**You could."**_

_The two actually share a smile with each other at how alike they are sounding._

"_In retrospect that whole who is begging who is dumb. It isn't about that."_

_The Other grins as she can hear what Kitty is thinking. So, so close. **"It's about accepting who you are."**_

"_Yes." Kitty looks her Other dead in the eye. "I do want you. I want you so much that it feels wrong on some level."_

"_**But so right on another."**_

"_Because We are One. Fighting you...denying you has been denying myself...and the damning thing is that right now I think I don't even care that some would call us a monster. I want you. I need you. I need to be whole again. Without you I have felt empty...incomplete," Kitty confesses what she has been in denial about. She's felt hollow inside for months and tried to deny why. Tried to come up with any excuse she could think of not to accept the truth and the truth is it was because she and her Other were apart. She can see that so clearly now. _

"_**As have I Katherine. You understand now, don't you. That we belong..."**_

"_Together. That we are two..."_

"_**Halves of one soul."**_

_They gaze longingly into each other's identical faces._

"_I'm sorry," Kitty apologises. "Sorry for locking you up. For denying you. For...for freaking out. For trying to live up to everyone's else's expectations of how I was suppose to react. I can only offer a lame excuse that the revelations you brought about what my...our true nature was were a bit of a shock I wasn't ready for."_

_Her Other grins lopsidedly. **"Well I think I get that. Being your other half and all," **she drawls._

_Kitty laughs. "God it is so absurd that it takes me here, on the verge of death, to accept the simple truth of you and I."_

_The Other laughs too. It is truly absurd. **"Karma can be a bitch but it can also deliver what you didn't know you needed."**_

"_I know what I need. You and only you...and well Peter," she just about manages to remember the boy she loves, which shows how strong her love for him is in in all reality that it can penetrate this fog, this overwhelming pull between the two figures._

_Kitty supposes that if people could see her right now they would be shocked at what she is about to do. Everyone looks at her and thinks she so good, sweet and innocent but the truth is she's not. She knows exactly what her Other is, what drives her, what dark impulses guide her heart and right now she doesn't care. All she cares about is filling that hollow space within. Perhaps this is the moment she follows Illyana's example and damns her soul. If this is her Last Temptation then she is about to embrace it willingly with all her heart._

_Kitty looks her doppelgänger in the eye. "It's time to be whole again," she decides, the longing for that pouring out desperately._

"_**Yes," **the Other says with the same desperate longing. It's been too long. Far, far too long they've been apart._

_Kitty's right hand rises up and her Other raises her left and their palms touch and both shudder in pleasure as the two soul halves begin to reconnect._

_Their fingers lock together and both throw their heads back, letting out an almost orgasmic cry. They're almost there._

"_Oh God!" Kitty cries. "It's so...so..."_

"_**Good!" **the Other roars in pleasure._

"_We had been trying to forget."_

"_**But We can never forget."**_

"_We had tried to deny the truth."_

"_**But the truth always prevails in the end."**_

"_Yes," Kitty says in a deep moan as she raises her left hand. Her Other takes it and they lock fingers, both crying out in rapture as their soul stitches back together. "We have missed you…"_

"_**So much!"**_

"_Love!"_

"_**You!"**_

"_So much!"_

_The two are shaking with desperate need. The need to be together again. To be One again. They pull each other into their embrace, pressing their bodies up against each other as closely as possible as the separation fades piece by piece. Their thoughts turn to the one other thing...the only other thing that can penetrate the fog of their embrace. The only other person who has a grip on their heart._

"_Love!"_

"_**Peter!"**_

"_Save!_

"_**Peter!"**_

"_OH! OH GODDD!" Kitty cries out in pure unadulterated bliss as the outline of the two begins to disappear, the two merging into one._

"_**YES! OH YES!" **the Other cries out, caught in the same bliss._

"_Together," Kitty gasps, struggling to get words out because 'Kitty' is almost gone now and something...someone else is about to be reborn. "Only together..."_

"_**Are We strong. Only together..."**_

"_Are We whole. Only together..."_

"_**ARE..."**_

"_W**E**..."_

"_**CARNAGE!"**_

_And standing there in that space no longer are two people but only one. One whole and complete being, her eyes closed, lost in the utter rapture of reuniting her soul. Her eyes snap open, blood red in colour and she laughs. She laughs loud and large and while this may look like Katherine Anne Pryde it's not._

_Katherine Anne Pryde is gone. Kitty is gone. Shadowcat is gone. The 'Other' is gone._

_There is only One. Both and neither. New and Old. Light and Dark. Contradictions that have only found peace by merging._

_And now it's time for the whole world to see what has been reborn…_

* * *

So to put it mildly this day sucks. For Spider-Man he finds him suspended in mid-air, each limb in a vice-like grip courtesy of Doc Ock's tentacles. Held in the perfect position to be able to see the girl he loves bleed to death. Unsurprisingly he's finally out of jokes.

"Now where were we, Arachnid?" Dr Octopus asks. "Ah, yes I remember. We were about to allow Kraven to finish his Great Hunt."

Nothing. Zip. Zero. Silence. After having to listen to Spider-Man's jokes for years it is almost unnerving not to hear his voice.

Kraven draws a knife(seriously how many of these things does he keep on his person?). "Do not worry about your beloved, Spider-Man," he addresses his foe. "You'll be seeing her again soon enough," he promises.

Then words one would never expect to come from the hero's mouth are spoken. "I am going to kill you," he vows, anger, rage, grief pouring out of every overly calm spoken word.

Kraven actually chuckles. "I know that rage well, Spider-Man. I understand what madness grief can drive you to but I am afraid that is one promise you cannot keep," he informs his prey.

"Just get it over with already," Vulture says impatiently. This has gone on long enough.

Kraven prepares to do just that, drawing the knife back, ready to strike...only to be unable to when his wrist is grabbed by a tendril. A red and black tendril made of a tar-like material.

All eyes shoot to the source...and it is the blood. The pool of Kitty's blood that is now alive, bubbling, churning and standing, yes standing, in the middle of it is said teenage girl, blade still stuck right through her chest.

More red and black tendrils erupt from the pool and strike out at the villains, smashing each one hard and freeing Spider-Man from Doc Ock's grip before they return and start to wrap around the girl, embracing her. One wraps around the handle of the blade in her back and pulls it out.

What one could call pleasurable moans and gasps escape from Kitty's mouth. **"Ooh, that felt good," **she moans with a large smile, her eyelids fluttering, lost in the moment. **"This will feel better," **she then goes on to say and then from the practically gaping wound in her chest comes not blood but a torrent of red and black goop which spreads over her body, forming a second skin...and as it spreads she laughs. That horrible, twisted one. It's a laugh of joy, almost orgasmic in its quality.

None of the six villains present have actually had the pleasure of even meeting Venom so are all stunned inert by witnessing this, something none of them have ever seen before.

Eventually the goop settles down and the figure literally pops her joints, bending them at almost unnatural angles. Sharp, talon like fingers, white bug-like eyes reminiscent of Spider-Man's and sharp pointed teeth in the mouth top off the appearance. She cracks her neck. **"Now then where were We?" **she asks aloud, tapping a talon on her chin as she thinks before snapping her fingers. **"Oh yes. We remember."**

Her whole demeanour then becomes incredibly dark. **"Get the fuck away from our boyfriend!" **she snarls.

"What is it?" Electro asks, dumbstruck.

She chortles. **"Oh you wish to know Our name? You wish to know whose name you will be screaming as We peel the flesh from your bones and make balloon animals out of your ****lower ****intestines****?"**

'_Don't say it. Please don't say it,' _Peter silently prays in his head even if he knows that's a hopeless prayer.

"**We are that feeling that crawls up your spine just before We tear it out. We are every nightmare you have ever had given form. We are Chaos made flesh." **Her arms rise out to her side, her hands clenched into triumphant fists and then she roars her identity to a world that she wants to know that she is coming. **"WE ARE CARNAGE!"**

…

_..._

And watching the whole thing is that Entity that is always there. That personification of Life and Death known as Dee Dee to her friends. The dark-haired Goth woman who bears witness when every living thing in the universe is born and when it dies...and honestly this is a unique moment when both things are happening at the same time. What was two has died and been reborn as one. She really must note this down in her diary. Even for her this is something rare and special.

And watch is all she can do. It's not her job to interfere...though there are days when even she wishes she could. Like when that day comes when her sister Fifi...nope. No. She's not going there. It will be horrendous enough as is when it happens but alas happen it must. Her sister needs a reality check. She has already made that choice when she refused to stop it years ago(as humans measure linear time). There are just some days when being an Omnipotent Cosmic Entity is not all one might think it is cracked up to be.

* * *

_Author's Note: Carnage was always going to return. The choices were did the symbiote simply overwhelm a resisting Kitty or did she give in to the temptations. I went with the latter. In the end you have to remember that the symbiote has been within Kitty for months by this point, gnawing away at her psyche, tempting, taunting, seducing and it's not like Kitty could just walk away and not listen. And if they are two halves of the same soul(I emphasise the IF here because that is something that will have to be settled once and for all at a later date) then inevitably their rejoining would be an extremely pleasurable experience. In either case for right now Kitty and the symbiote and one and the same once again. And ooh, a Death cameo. Missed her lots. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 8._

_AN1: Hope y'all are still keeping safe and well._


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

**At the Institute...**

The battle continues to rage across the Institute's grounds. Emma's students totally unaware that she has left them behind. Willingly or unwillingly being an unknown at this time.

"Oof!" is the sound as air escapes from Rogue's lungs as she smashes into a tree. Normally it takes a lot to hurt Rogue but there's this new mutant with black hair she's never seen before who wields some sort of ebony coloured energy and believe her when Rogue says getting hit by it does more than sting. In fact Rogue's almost glad she was the one who was struck by that blast. She hates to think what would have happened had it hit someone less robust than her. "Ok, now sistah, now ya've made meh angry," she tells her foe who smiles wickedly.

Rogue rolls her eyes. She's seen that gleam before. It tells her this woman is pretty far out there in enjoying inflicting pain on people. "Why do ah always get tha sadistic ones," she grumbles, though it is very arguable whether that statement is true or not as she gets back into the fight.

"Get off of me!" comes the rather undignified shout of Empath.

Magma, who frankly couldn't hate her manipulative ex-boyfriend more if she tried after he used his powers to make her 'love' him and then defect to the Hellions, covers her mouth with her hand as she tries and fails to hold in a belly laugh.

Because you see her ex-boyfriend(and there is just no way to put enough emphasis on the 'ex' bit) is lying on the ground. To be more accurate he is pinned down...by Penance, whose expression is one of pure innocence, simply sitting on him due to the fact her body is extremely dense and therefore heavy and it is just so, so, so funny to see the arrogant prat humiliated in this fashion.

"Seriously bitch can we not discuss this?" Alison Blaire asks as she ducks from the swing of a mystical sword before retaliating with a blast of light that hits her opponent in the shoulder.

Magik growls in annoyance, her eyes beginning to glow as her darker self threatens to break through. "Did you 'discuss this' before you just attacked our home without provocation?"

"Hey, I just do it for the money!" Ali says in her defence which is true. She only ever signed up for this Hellion gig because Emma got her a recording contract.

"An honest if rather shallow reason," Magik says.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Christ I picked the wrong day to quit drinking."

"You picked the wrong day to do many actions, child."

Ali looks up to see a Goddess float in the sky. A rapidly darkening sky as clouds roll in. Storm in all her fury is about to be unleashed.

"Fuck. It looks like I also picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue!"

Lightning cracks the heavens, the wind begins to howl.

"Ha-ha-ha-ha!" Volcana howls with laughter. "You guys are so screwed now!" she says with glee at the ass-whooping her former teammates are about to receive.

That is when the divine wrath falls upon the Hellions.

As they try to endure the wind, the lightning, the rain, the hail and just about every weather phenomenon you can imagine, Wolverine uses the distraction to sneak up on who, last he knew, was the leader of this 'happy little mob'.

King Bedlam.

He sweeps the feet away from the bald headed African-American young man and pins him down, with two claws either side of the neck.

"Now bub, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Tell your team to stand down or..." And Wolverine begins to extend his middle claw.

What choice does Bedlam have here exactly? Beyond taking a chance Wolverine is bluffing? "Hellions! Stand down! It's over! It's over," he says bitterly.

"Storm!" Wolverine calls up. "You can go easy on them now!"

"Must I?" she asks with a pout.

Wolverine chuckles. That's why he loves her.

Storm lets out a calming breath. It's so rare that she really gets to let loose. It's an exhilarating feeling that she misses.

The weather calms in response as Logan yanks Bedlam to his feet. "Now bub, we need to talk. Where's your boss?"

"She's here."

Storm comes into land nearby shaking her head. "She is not. She is gone and if we do not find her the entire world will be in peril."

"What are you guys talking about?" Bedlam asks clueless.

Storm and Wolverine share a look. They don't know. They don't know what any of this is about.

"Alright pal, listen and listen good because I ain't got the time to repeat myself," Wolverine makes sure Bedlam is listening as he summarises just what the hell is actually going on. More or less everything. Like he said he ain't got time for the usual secrets and half-truths.

* * *

**New York...**

The Sinister Six have recovered from their initial shock and now prepare themselves to face...whatever it is this girl is.

The girl that is right now helping Spider-Man to his feet.

"**On your feet, soldier!" **Carnage snaps jokingly. **"We'll get to the _lying_ down part later," **she says seductively with a wink.

"Kitty?" Spider-Man croaks, his heart seized in terror at what his eyes behold. "You're ok?" he just has to ask, pointing at her chest.

"**T'was merely a flesh wound!" **she declares, dismissing it as anything serious.

"Kitty. You can fight this," he is beginning to argue but is cut off when his now symbiotic girlfriend places a talon to his lips. **"Shh, We'll talk later. First We feel the need to inflict some extreme violence. God! It's been too long since We were able to do that!" **she laments.

"Whatever you are...creature," Doc Ock addresses her. "You and the arachnid are still outnumbered."

"**Ba-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha," **Carnage laughs mockingly. **"You guys! Are what? A threat? Puh-lease! We've seen scarier laundry baskets. No seriously We think someone cursed the thing."**

"Have you forgotten already what we did to you?" Kraven asks, holding a new knife up(seriously where does he keep them?)

"**That's not a knife," **Carnage says in a strong Australian accent. She then transforms her right hand into a blade. **"This is a knife!" **She cackles. **"Crocodile Dundee, mate. Haven't seen that movie in ages. We'll put it on the list of things We'll be doing while you guys are being buried...or cremated...or mummified. Honestly We don't really care as long as it happens after We've tortured you horribly for six..seven hours tops."**

"Hours?" Spider-Man queries...and yes it's a dumb question.

"**You're right," **she says with a nod. **"It is far too short a time but you know We're busy. Got lots of plans to catch up on all those things We missed out on these last few months...but don't worry honey We'll make sure to set aside time for you," **she assures him, squeezing his cheek...no not that one.

"Hey!" Spider-Man yelps as Carnage gives his butt cheek a squeeze.

She cackles. **"Or is that set aside time ****for **_**rid**__**ing **_**you?"**

Yep. They're all so, so, so screwed and Peter doesn't have a clue what to do right now. While he has defeated the Sinister Six before on his own he doubts he can fight them and try and rein Kitty in in this state at the same time but he can't just allow her to do what she will do to them either. Peter has no love for any of these guys but what Carnage will do to them if she was allowed to...involuntarily shudder.

Course that is when the typical Parker luck kicks in and any choice in the matter is taken out of Peter's hands when Carnage just charges in.

"**Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war!" **she cries as she lets 'slip' a series of symbiote created weapons. Throwing Axes, knives, sharp daggers forcing the 6 villains to dodge or try and protect themselves...well except Sandman naturally. **"And to think We only got a B for that assignment. A fucking B!" **she recalls angrily.** "Remind us to pay our teacher a visit," **she requests because that teacher is so going to pay. A B?! Seriously?! **"We'll carve that damn B into his chest!" **she vows.

Carnage leaps right in to the middle of the group, the thrill of the battle, of violence, making her blood rush through her veins. It's that thrill that overrides the part of her that really can think rationally and strategically when it comes to fights but she is still riding on the high of her rebirth.

It starts off well enough. She took them by surprise. After all who charges in to attack 6 of the most dangerous...ok Mysterio doesn't count. Who charges in to attack 5 of the most dangerous villains on the planet?

Though she doesn't forget to deliver a nice powerful kick to Mysterio's gut in the process. So, so satisfying.

Her arms morph into blades and she slashes away at them, forcing the 5 of them who actually have solid bodies to dodge the very lethal strikes. This tells them that this...thing is nothing like Spider-Man. She really is trying to kill them.

Now about that 6th one without a solid form. Looking to help his fellow villains his hands morphed into spikey balls and SMASH!

Sandman strikes her, sending her flying into a parked car which crumples on impact.

"Nicely done, Marko," Doc Ock compliments him but it's only a temporary reprieve.

Carnage shakes her head as she stands back up. **"WOOHOO, THAT WAS FUN!"** she proclaims. **"Gotta say there beach boy you pack a hell of a wallop. We're gonna enjoy finding a way to actually hurt you but in the meantime lets play catch!"** she proposes with great enthusiasm as she picks up the car she was slammed into and hurls it through the air at them.

Only to have it stopped mid-air by a giant web.

"**Oh, come on!" **she complains. **"That was us totally being merciful," **she whines. **"A nice quick death by being squashed by car! Can't you let us have any fun?!" **she asks, hands on hips in a very Kitty-esque pouting pose.

"Boy, where do I even start with that one?" Spider-Man mutters to himself as he lands atop the car he stuck. This entire situation was a nightmare. What was he suppose to do? How can he stop the Sinister Six and his symbiote-possessed girlfriend...who frankly so far is only playing around. Carnage is capable of far worse than what she has done so far...and yes he internally berates himself for thinking that about Kitty but sadly it is very true.

So to his left are 6 of his greatest villains...ok, 5 of his greatest villains. Mysterio...so lame. And to his right is the love of his life currently decked out in a red and black psychotic inducing symbiote suit.

This is gonna be one of _those _days.

* * *

**At the Institute...**

So Wolverine laid it out. Nice and plain. That Cyclops was now possessed by an alien General who would transform Earth into a new version of his homeworld and that all of them, probably, wouldn't survive it.

The Hellions all had deep frowns on their faces but whether that was from the fact they were unhappy at what they were hearing or losing the fight they were just having no-one could tell just yet.

"Is this all true, Dust?" Roulette asks.

"Roulette, what?" Bedlam asks.

"Come on Chris, we all know Sooraya doesn't lie. She can't. If she says this is true then it's true," the blond argues.

Bedlam opens his mouth to argue and then closes it. Jen's right. "Ok, Dust. The truth?"

Dust looks at her former teammates with a calm, patience gaze. "What Mr Logan has told you is the truth. Ms Frost has made...an unfortunate deal."

"Really gonna for understatement there aren't ya Dust," Jubilee rattles off a sarcastic drawl. A Jubilee sporting a black eye and a split lip. Oh, someone is so gonna pay for this later.

"Seriously guys, how much longer are you going to go along with this?" Volcana asks her former teammates. "It should be so fucking obvious by now, to even you stupid idiots, Ms Frost doesn't care about you beyond how she can use you."

"Volcana's right," Tarot says in support of her lover. "It was why I left. Why she left. Why Dust and Penance left. I mean just look at her. That's Monet. You all remember that right?" the French girl asks them while pointing at the red coloured mutant. "And while Emma was not directly responsible it was because of her association with the Hellfire Club...and oh yeah, how did that last meeting with them go again?"

"Us trapped in some shitty Hell dimension Selene cooked up," Volcana answers. "And you think that'll be the end of it? Selene hates Emma's guts and vice versa. How long until the snobby bitch throws you under the bus...or as cannon fodder against the fucking Black Queen."

"Uh, hello," Magma waves. "Are we forgetting what she had that piece of trash over there do to me?" she asks, very annoyed that her pain isn't being mentioned while pointing at a still pinned underneath Penance Empath.

"Let me up!" he yells.

"The only up I want Manuel is the one where I shove you up Pluto's arse until he shits you down into the Underworld for all eternity!" the Nova Roman princess vents some of her pent up fury.

"Ooh, I have gotta remember that one," Volcana chuckles, mentally storing that insult away.

"You know, they're right," Ali speaks up. "Enough is enough and frankly I'm not sure any amount of money is worth all this bullshit," she says, genuinely tired of all of this. This was not what she signed up for. She signed up to get a damn record deal yet lately it doesn't seem to her that her music career is going anywhere, anytime fast.

The Hellions all look at each other and it is clear there is doubt in their eyes but if they were being honest the doubt isn't a new phenomenon. It's been a constant one since that very incident when Selene seized control of the Hellfire Club and cast Emma out. They've all been asking what the consequences of that would be for them.

"What do you want us to do?" Bedlam asks.

"Just tell us where they might have gone," Logan answers. That's all they need.

"Fuck if we know," Hellions says, angrily. "She just left us here!" he exclaims. Left him here. Him?! Of all people. And you know what this is not the first time Ms Frost has not shown him the respect he damn well deserves and you know what else? He's sick and tired of it.

Just when it looks like they're at a dead end Sage walks out of the mansion, her pace rapid, laptop in hand. "We have a problem," she states.

"Can ya narrow that down a little?" Husk asks because they have a whole heap of problems.

"What Hayseed Jr said," Logan says in agreement.

"I examined the laptop. Zod has disabled Brainiac's virus. Critical system have been restored to normal."

"Why would he do that?" Storm asks.

"He required information," Sage answers as she opens the laptop and shows what she has managed to retrieve.

"The Pentagon?!" Logan exclaims. "What the hell was he looking for there?"

"That I cannot answer," Sage has to unfortunately reply. "But I strongly advise you do not let him finish whatever his goal is."

"Yeah, great," Logan grumbles. "Any idea how to find him?"

"Not him."

Everyone looks at the source of that voice. Jean.

"What was that Red?" Logan asks.

"We don't find him…Zod. We find Scott."

"You're gonna have to explain that one."

"Cerebro," Jean answers. "If the virus has been disabled it'll be working again. I can use it to find Scott because no matter what Brainiac did to enhance him, at his base code Scott is still a mutant. Failing that I can always try to locate Emma if we continue to assume they're together," she proposes.

Logan looks to Sage who has a contemplative look on her face. "Could work," the technopathic mutant muses.

Logan throws his hands up. What the hell have they got to lose at this point. "Alright, Red. We're in your hands."

* * *

Soon enough Jean is down in Cerebro as Beast runs a quick diagnostic on it.

"It all seems to check out," the hairy mutant reports. "You're sure about this?" he asks her. "This does place an enormous strain on your mind and you must maintain absolute control," he reminds her of something she is aware of.

"This is not my first rodeo...uck, I'm starting to sound like Clark," Jean makes an annoyed sound.

Beast chortles softly. It has not escaped even his attention that Clark and Jean seem to have an effect on the other. Jean's patience, support and compassion have had a beneficial effect on Clark's whole demeanour while Clark has been helping Jean not be so serious because his student could take things too seriously. There is a need to just relax and enjoy life from time to time. "Ready when you are," he tells her.

Jean takes a breath, calms and focusses her mind and places the helmet on her head. This should work because if anyone should know Scott's mind(assuming he's still in there) it's her. Despite their recent conflicts Jean did love him and dated him and therefore got to know his mind quite intimately.

Through Cerebro Jean's mind expands outward, leaving the confines of the mansion and stretching out across the country searching for Scott's signature. She's not having much luck. It looks like whatever Brainiac did has completely altered Scott's signature and she can't…

"_Grey."_

"_Emma?"_

There is no reply but what had surprised Jean was Emma making herself so easy to detect. In fact it's beyond that. Emma psychically called out and gave her location away.

But why?

The possible answer would mean Jean giving Emma a benefit of the doubt...and as usually willing to do that as Jean would be normally...it's Emma freakin Frost!

It's probably a trap...or to think the unthinkable Emma is regretting her choice and looking for a way out.

Jean cannot believe she thought that. She did just give Emma the benefit of the doubt. She feels dirty.

Then again what choice is there? Trap or not Jean has a location and they may have their last chance to stop Zod.

The powerful telepath returns to the confines of her body and removes the helmet. She turns and exits the room where Logan and Storm are waiting for her.

"How did it go?" Storm asks.

"I couldn't find Scott but I did find Emma. She's at her home in Boston," she reports.

Wolverine snorts. "We're just going around in circles at this point," he gripes that they have to go back to Boston.

Jean shrugs helplessly.

"Alright," Logan accepts that this is what fate has dumped on him. "Lets gear up and get moving."

"What about the Hellions?" Storm wonders.

"We ain't got time to deal with them, Ro. They're free to go and do whatever," he decides.

Ororo thinks it isn't that simple. Go where? Do what? Back to Emma? Hmm...has to be a better option than that. "I shall remain here and keep an eye on them until they leave."

"You sure?" Logan asks. "We could use ya."

"Perhaps but you will have those weapons we built to tackle a Kryptonian and take Magik along with you this time. We know, from Clark, Kryptonians have an aversion to magic. Plus I suspect she knows far more about possessions of varying forms than anyone else here. There may still be a way to save Scott."

Logan can't argue with any of her logic. "You feeling ok? Or yer stomach still acting up?"

Oh, of all the questions he could ask. This is not the time to get into that. Not until she is sure. "I am fine," she assures him. She leans over and kisses his cheek. "Just remember to come back to me," she says in a soft, loving voice.

"Hey, you know me, darlin," he drawls.

"Yes. That's why she said it," Jean quips making Storm laugh.

Logan rolls his eyes. Women.

* * *

As the x-jet roars away into the distance Storm finds herself eyeing up the Hellions with the New Mutants guarding them.

They seem rather...lost which is what she was suspecting might be the case.

She thinks that perhaps it is time for her to do her best Charles' impression. "You are free to go," she announces to them. "But before you do I have a small request."

The Hellions eye her suspiciously. Just letting them go seems too easy.

"What request?" Bedlam asks.

"That you hear me out."

The Hellions look at each other, confused.

"What the hell. Not like we've got anything to lose at this point is it," Ali says, sounding rather defeated and deflated.

No-one can come up with an argument against that.

Bedlam throws his hands up. "Ok, shoot. What is it you want to say?"

What Storm will say, in the end, will amount to an offer. She just hopes the Hellions possess the wisdom to accept it.

* * *

**The Phantom Zone...**

Clark and Raya are near the portal now. Taking the long way round had eaten up time. Perhaps time they didn't have but it's too late to change course now. They are laying flat down on the slope of a dune.

"There it is," Raya says in a hushed whisper.

Clark peers over the lip of the dune. There isn't much to see. Two crystals forming a triangle opening and what he assumes is the control panel.

"I don't see anyone," Raya mentions.

"They're there," Clark tells her. "Quite a few of them actually," he can just...sense. Don't ask him to explain it rationally.

Raya glances at him. She has no reason not to believe him. "They must have heard you were in the Zone and knew you'd come here."

"Great. I end up in the one place with a rumour mill worse than the mansion," he mutters in disparaging tones. "Any ideas?" he asks his companion.

"Just the one," she says as she suddenly pulls out a dagger.

Before Clark can react she is slicing open his palm. "What the…?!"

Raya places her hand over his mouth, quietening him before they are heard. "I am sorry, Kal-El," she apologises. "Sorry that I will not be able to join you on your journey," she says with deep regret.

Clark looks at her confused.

"But before we part let me say this. I have known you only a short time but I can see the greatness within. Whatever darkness has touched you...lay it down. It does not define you. It does not control you. Be the light your parents believed you to be. Be the light I can see struggling to break free. Be the light and lead the way. It has been my honour to aid you." She lifts his cut hand and squeezes it. "Your blood will open the portal. Farewell," she says, her voice tinged with deep emotions. Regret mostly.

Before Clark can stop her she is on her feet, leaping over the top of the dune and running down the other side, past the portal...and that is when a good dozen or so other robed figures and wraith-like entities emerge to chase after her. She's providing a distraction.

Clark swears under his breath. If she had told him she was doing this he would never have let her. Which is exactly why she didn't tell him, he guesses. He flings his body over the top of the dune and down the other side. Thanks to Raya's distraction he reaches the portal unmolested and places his bloody hand on the controls. The portal begins to activate, a brilliant white light forming in the centre of the triangle.

Clark spins round, looking for Raya. Maybe it's not too late. Maybe he can still get to her. She's not too far away as matter of fact. His eyes go wide when what he sees is Raya, who had been fighting off the other Zoners, getting stabbed in the side by one. "Raya!" he screams...which is a mistake.

It simply brings the attention of the Zoners upon him. They rush toward him just as the light in the portal expands outward, engulfing him…

* * *

_Author's Note: Yay Carnage is back! I say yay because she is so fun to write for. Ali doing her Lloyd Bridges impression. Empath still not getting what he really deserves but this will do for the moment. And I wonder what Storm could possibly be offering the Hellions? Oh my! Is that Emma actually trying to find a way out? Or is it just another trap? And Raya proving she is one of the good ones after all. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 9_


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

**New York...**

"**Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" **Carnage laughs insanely at the utter chaos that has become the fight with the Sinister Six. Insane violence...that's like 2 of her favourite things put together like in a scrummy sandwich and that's before she even gets to the extreme property damage and cowering civilians. It's like it's her birthday or something. Oh wait. It is her birthday! Well rebirth-day.

And thanks to the anarchy Brainiac's virus caused there isn't really anyone who is going to stop this because everyone else from First Responders to other heroes are all fighting their own battles to rein in the chaos that has been unleashed across not only the United States but the entire world.

With her lover currently keeping Vulture and Sandman busy, Mysterio currently unconscious, sprawled out over a car and Kraven at least temporarily out of it that leaves her currently tackling Doctor Octopus. **"Ya know We heard that in some places in the world Octopus soup is considered a delicacy," **she drawls in a raspy tone. **"But personally We prefer chilled monkey brains...and you're sort of a monkey right? We mean humans are primates after all."**

Doc Ock's tentacles fly at her and she stands there and lets them phase through her.

"**Uh rude much? We're talking here!" **she complains.

Once tentacles swings at her and this time she chooses to catch it and showing off just how strong she is she starts to spin round and round, faster and faster, swinging the deranged scientist around with her.

"**You swing us right round, baby, right round, like a meat grinder, baby. Right round, round round. You spin us right round," **she croons joyfully.

"Electrooo! Now!" Ock yells.

And with Carnage having to be solid to grip the Doc it makes her all too vulnerable to the electrical attack. She screams, the symbiote rippling and spasmming.

Yes the energy does travel along the tentacle but it does get Ock what he wanted; Released.

Recovering his senses as quickly as he can he grabs his strange foe and starts to slam her over and over into the ground, cars, street lamps, anything and everything before he brings the stunned foe to dangle in front of him. "I do not know what this...substance covering you is but I will enjoy dissecting you to find out."

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

Suddenly Doc's face is covered by bits of symbiote Carnage literally spat out.

"AUUGGHH!" are the muffled cries as man tries to rip the goop of his face.

Carnage gracefully lands on her feet before turning her murderous glare on who shocked her. **"We are going to pluck your fucking electrons off one by one you sorry excuse for an Electrophorus electricus! We are going to rip off your dick and short circuit it right up your ass! And then...and only then will We get mad!"**

Electro powers up. "Did anyone tell you you talk far too much," he tells her, utterly fed up of the coarse threats.

Carnage actually growls in response.

When the attack comes it hits nothing as Carnage phases downward into the ground.

"Where did you go you insane bitch?" Electro mutters, looking around for her. Not seeing the hand phase out of the ground and grab his leg and yank him downward. A few moments later there is a scream of pain and a huge electrical discharge that erupts out of the ground, blasting a hole. Looking down you find Electro lying amongst the remains of a shattered waters main into which Carnage had phased him.

With a casual heave she throws him back up on to street level before leaping upward and landing back on the street. She addresses her fallen foe. **"****You know you call us insane like it's an insult. We take it as a compliment. We don't suffer from insanity. We're enjoying every second of it! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ugk!" **she is stopped mid-laugh by a knife being rammed into her side...by Kraven.

"Die, creature!" Kraven snarls angrily.

Carnage seems to sway on the spot. **"Oh no! You got us! It's all fading away...getting dark...nah! Didn't even tickle," **she declares with a chuckle as the symbiote wraps itself tight around Kraven's hand, holding him in place as she smashes an elbow into his face. The force enough to shatter the hunter's nose easily. She then grabs him and tosses him over her head and to the ground before deliver blow after blow after blow to him but just before she knocks him into next month she stops, raises her right hand and her talons change into thinner, more needle like appendages which she then rams deep into Kraven's shoulder, choosing to deliberately avoid the major organs. After all she doesn't want him dead yet. **"Scream for us," **she says, almost salivating for it as she twists her fingers in his flesh.

Kraven doesn't of course.

Carnage takes her left hand and extends her index finger into a long point which she aims right for the man's right eye. **"Scream or We'll pluck your eye out," **she threatens.

"Do your worst!" Kraven spits in her face.

"**Our worst eh?" **she says back, amused. **"Ok, you poor man's Elmer Fudd. Tell you what you can keep your eye. We'll just just go ahead and eat your brains!" **she says with a great deal of relish for that idea. Carnage's maw opens wide, ready to engulf Kraven's entire head...

THWIP!

...when a webline sticks to her back and she gets yanked away.

With a tumble and a roll she gets back to her feet and find herself face to face with her lover boy.

"**Hey! Whatcha doing?! We were just getting to the good part!" **she yells at Spider-Man, outraged at his interruption.

"Sorry, sweetie but you're on a brain free diet, remember. And I did promise to keep you from falling off the wagon," he says.

"**You're no fun! Why the hell are We dating you again?"**

"My hot body?"

"**Well there is that."**

"My killer personality."

"**That too. Though We'd be much more attracted to you if you embraced that 'killer' part a little more."**

"Oi, oi, oi," Spider-Man laments. "Kitty, please. I know you're in there," he pleads with her.

"**Of course We're in here," **she replies like she's talking to an idiot. **"Spidey-bear, We had this conversation last time. Everything that was Kitty Pryde is part of us. It's utterly amazing how the first person to ever be bonded to a symbiote understands so little about how this works," **she slightly mocks him.

"I do understand, Kitty," Spider-Man says with an unusual seriousness about him. "I know what it does to you. I wish to God I could forget," he expresses a deep desire. Unfortunately he can't forget.

Carnage cocks her head, assessing him. **"You miss it, don't you? You miss ****our**** dear old daddy; Venom."**

And that is Peter's shameful secret. On some level he does. Being bonded...it's like an addiction. It feels so, so good but like any addiction it's wrong. Especially when it turns you into someone you're not. That's why Venom had to go. It's also why he has been so desperate to get rid of Carnage before he lost the girl he loves forever. He's trying real hard not to think that that might have already happened. "Can we talk about this after we've stopped the Spider-Man's Rogue's Gallery of Losers Support Group?" he requests.

Carnage grins. He does miss it and to think last time he actually turned down her offer to get him a new symbiote...oh wait. She gets it. He doesn't want just any old symbiote. He wants the old man back. That's why he turned her down last time. God, she's an idiot. Hmm...now what to do about it?

Both suddenly move out the way as Sandman tries to squash them.

"**Oh for the fucking love of God!" **Carnage exclaims.

"That has to be blasphemous," Spider-Man comments.

Carnage shoots him a snide look before turning her focus back on the man of living sand. **"Can't you see that we were having a conversation here?! Seriously, do you have something against romance?"**

"What part of any of this is romantic?" the webbed-hero wonders.

"**The violence, the rage, the property damage, the chaos, the citizens cowering, fearing for their lives. This is like, totally, our dream date!" **she proclaims, her voice almost dreamy sounding.

"Wow, have I been doing it wrong up to now," he has to say.

"**True but the great sex compensates."**

"Well it's nice to know I'm good for something."

"**Oh honey, you're good for lots of things. Well one part of you is good for one thing anyway," **she snickers.

"It's amazing how quickly you went from compliment to insult."

"**That's because We're the Amazing Carnage!" **she says without a flicker of remorse at stealing that bit.

"At least she didn't say 'Spectacular'," he mutters in a huff.

"**We save 'Spectacular' for the bedroom."**

"I completely walked into that."

"**You totally did."**

"You two are crazy," Sandman reflects. He has just been standing there, dumbstruck at listening to these two bicker back and forth.

"**Crazy in love, yeah. What's your point, Grit-for my-drive-Man?"**

"That's even lamer than me," Spider-Man bemoans, holding a hand to his head in an over-theatrical manner.

"**No-one's lamer than you, sweetheart. Surely you can't not realise this?"**

"No amount of revenge is worth this!" Sandman cries as he wipes his hands with the both of them, turns around and leaves, leaving behind two dumbstruck heroes...well one hero and one 'slightly' unhinged symbiotic mutant.

"**Did he just leave?" **Carnage asks, stunned.

"Yep," her partner confirms.

"**I didn't even get to rip his balls off!" **she complains, outraged.

"Not sure he has any, being completely composed of sand and all."

"**We were speaking metaphorically."**

"Either way can you not mention things like that?" he requests. "Makes me wince."

"**Aw, we would never do that you," **Carnage assures him, while she gives that 'package' a squeeze making him jump and yelp and making her cackle in joyful amusement. **"Anyway if he's gone We can get back to our snac-motherfucker!" **she curses at the fact that Kraven is gone, only leaving behind a small patch of his blood. **"We didn't even get a nibble!" **she whines.

"In-between meals' snacks are not good for you anyway."

"**Oh, bite us!" **she complains childishly, sticking out her long, slobbery tongue to blow out a raspberry for good measure. **"Ok, if he's gone how about Vulture?" **she asks, looking around for the old man.

"Nope," Spider-Man has to tell her that the old man is gone as well.

"**Mysterio?"**

"Saw him vanish in his puff of smoke about 5 minutes ago."

"**Electro?"**

Spider-man shakes his head.

"**Ock?"**

"I guess they decided we were too much for them," he says because the six have in fact bugged out.

"**But-but We're hungry!" **she whines childishly.

"Try some chocolate," he suggests.

"**Depends. Can We spread it on your abs and lick it off?" **she asks as her own long, slobbery tongue emerges and licks her lips.

Peter sighs. If those six truly are gone and his spider-sense says they are then it's time for the thing he doesn't want to do. It's time to try and subdue his beloved. "Kitty. It's time for that talk."

"**No. You mean it's time to try and rip us in two again!" **she knows.** "We're not going back to being only half of ourselves!" **she warns him.

"I don't want to fight you!" he almost yells. "But I can't leave you like this either. It isn't who you are!"

"**It is who We are!" **she screams back at him.

"The Kitty I know wouldn't even suggest half the things you said."

"**The Kitty you knew was living in denial almost right up to the end. It was only when faced with death that she came to understand and accept the truth."**

"What truth?"

"**That this," **she gestures at herself, **"is not only who she truly was but it's actually who she wanted to be."**

"I'll never believe that. You want to know why?"

"**Oh, please do enlighten us," **she snarks, rolling her eyes.

"Because you keep saying 'We'. Not 'I', like last time. **We**," he emphasises a difference he had noticed and an important one as far as he is concerned.

Carnage raises a talon and opens her mouth as if about to argue and then stops. Then to Peter's surprise, the mask retreats, revealing Kitty's face, puckered up in a frown.

It looks like, if he is guessing correctly, that his point has hit home. Maybe it's not too late. Maybe he can still reach her. Peter pulls his mask off, secret identity be damned right now and takes her by the shoulders and searches into her face. "Kitty. I love you. I really hope by now you know that without me having to say it. I can't even begin to list all the things I love about you but I'll try. You're smart and kind and brave and clever and compassionate. You're so much more than I deserve. You have to see that this is not you. You don't revel in violence and chaos. Heck, the sight of blood makes you queasy. You're the girl who can literally shop until she drops and do so with a smile and admittedly I never got that and probably never will it didn't matter because it made you happy. That is all I want Kitty. For you to be happy. You will not be happy as this. Not really because it will hollow out your soul. Everything light and decent will be replaced with something dark and twisted and I can't standby and let that happen to someone as wonderful as you. You have to realise that I'll never stop fighting to save you."

Carnage's gaze doesn't quite meet his and her expression is one of someone having an internal debate with themselves. "Pete," she starts to say and does so without the echo of two-people speaking at once. "You have to understand..."

But before she can get any further the sound of approaching sirens distracts them as the police finally show up and a small convoy of New York's finest screech to a halt in the street and a heavily armed SWAT team takes position.

In an instant Spider-Man has his mask back on and unfortunately as far as he is concerned the symbiote recovers Kitty's face.

"What is it?!" one of the cops can be heard yelling as they train their weapons on Carnage.

Spider-Man steps into the line of fire. "Stay out of this!" he shouts at them and looks at the man in charge; Captain Stacy.

Captain Stacy knows what it is. He recalls Venom all too well. He also knows from getting told what happened when Osborn was revealed as the Green Goblin and captured. What happened to Peter's girlfriend Kitty. Ever since then he has been pretty close to the Parker family. Especially May, much to his daughter's chagrin but that's an aside. Point is he is pretty much in on all the secrets these days so while he he had never personally seen it he can guess this is Carnage.

And if Venom is any indication they are way, way out of their league. Carnage could easily wipe the floor with them so Captain Stacy orders his officers to hold off.

Spider-Man spins round to face Carnage and can see her tensed and ready to explode any second. Worse timing ever. Just when it looked like he was reaching her. Damn Parker luck. "Kitty, don't," he appeals to her. "They're just doing their job. Don't give into the rage. There is still a way out of this. You can choose," he tells her. He reaches out with his hand. "Just take my hand and we'll go home."

Carnage's hand reaches up but stops just short. **"We...We...need time to think," **she says in a soft raspy voice, missing the usual rage and undertone of thinly controlled violence. She then turns and sprints for it.

"Damn it!" Spider-Man cries as he chases after her. "Kitty!" he calls out after her.

She makes a leap and Spider-Man leaps after her, thinking she is about to swing away but she's deceiving him. Instead of going up, she goes down, phasing into the ground and making it impossible for Spider-Man to follow her.

"Kitty! No!" he screams after her as he lands on the ground, thumping the spot she vanished with his fist, his mask hiding the fact tears are streaming down his face as he faces up to the reality he may have just lost the girl he loves forever.

* * *

**Boston, Massachusetts...**

More specifically Emma's town house. She checks the time. Where the hell are the X-Men?

Yes, if you're wondering. Yes, she deliberately sent out that telepathic call to...ugh, Grey of all people. She'll never live that down.

After Zod had dumped her off here, it left her alone for the first time since this all began. Left her time to think. Left her time to realise just how angry and betrayed she felt. They had taken Scott from her. After all these months of trying to work her way back into his trust and in an instant it had all been taken away.

How dumb do they think she is?

That she can't work out that she had been lied, used and manipulated from the start. That Brainiac deceived her.

And just to top it all off Zod abandoned her students and despite it all, despite what it may seem like at times, Emma's rather heartless manipulations of her own students, she does care for them. She uses them, not because she enjoys it, but because in the long term, it's for their own good...or at least that's what she keeps telling herself.

This last year has been one disaster after another. Selene seizing control of the Hellfire Club and her own damn sister's involvement in the whole thing. Emma's banishment from the Inner Circle and subsequent loss of power and influence. The destruction of her school. Magma and Firestar's defection over to Xavier's. The loss of one of her most beloved students. Sophie of the Cuckoos, who had been injured during Selene's coup-d'etat. A head injury that put her in a coma. Well she never woke up from that coma. She slipped away a few weeks after Emma had had her moved into a medical facility.

Her 4 sisters had been devastated. Understandably so as they possessed a hive mind and now one part of that mind was gone. Emma was concerned about them...especially Esme who had become quite hard and emotionless.

Now usually Emma admires the ability to do that but she is concerned Esme is embracing those traits for the wrong reasons. Her thinking on the matter is interrupted by the return of Scott/Zod who places a bulky metal briefcase on the table.

"May I enquire as to what that is?"

Scott/Zod opens it to reveal some sort of computer equipment inside. "It grants access to your military satellites. Using Brainiac's hard drive I can use the satellites to initiate the pulse which will transform your world."

"Into your world. You're going to turn Earth into Krypton aren't you," Emma can guess from what was said between Ororo and Zod.

"Correct. You do possess above average intelligence for a human. It seems you will be worthy of standing by my side."

Ok, Emma is many things but the perpetrator of her own species' genocide isn't amongst them. Except she has done all she can in signalling the X-Men...hasn't she? Or has she? Perhaps if she was a bit more selfless a foolish action would be forthcoming but alas Emma is a bit too selfish and her instinct for self-preservation is too strong so she simply stands there, impotent(and God she hates that feeling) as Zod prepares to bring about the end of Earth and the end of humanity.

Of course Zod was well-known for being a strategic military genius and believe you him that his next action is only a beginning. For not only will he physically restore the planet Krypton, he will resurrect the race as well. The means to do so are on this planet. After the transformation he will have all the time necessary to seek those means out but for right now it is time to end humanity's possession of this world. The primitives never deserved it. And face facts they were destroying this world anyway and themselves along with it. Zod doubts humanity would have survived the next century. He's just speeding up the inevitable.

He places the hard drive upon the satellite's access and activates it. A pulse of white energy shoots upward into space and strikes the first satellite...which then transmits it to others who in turn transmit it to others until they form a web surrounding the planet.

Apart from the colour difference it is very reminiscent of what Apocalypse tried to do. Makes you wonder if it gave Brainiac and subsequently Zod the idea.

Difference here is though that this needs to effect the planet and not just the people living upon it so from each satellite a new beam shoots back down to the planet, striking its surface at key points along the tectonic fault lines. The ground begins to shake, not just in Boston, but worldwide as the energy begins to restructure the surface.

Just then the X-Men burst into the room...finally.

"You are too late," Scott/Zod sneers at them.

"We'll see about that bub!" Wolverine snarls back, popping his claws.

But before the fight can begin the window in the room shatters.

It is shattered by a ball of glowing fire that then strikes the hard drive, shattering it as well.

The pulse stops.

The shaking stops.

Everyone stops.

And then looks out through the window at a sight that makes Jean's hear swell in pure, unadulterated relief.

For floating there, arms folded across his chest is Superman. Not dressed as he was but in that suit he got from the Collector. The one of Kryptonian armour, blue in colour, his family crest in red and yellow on his chest with a red belt and red boots. Only this time something else has been added. Attached at the shoulders, fluttering in the wind is what was the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby, now repurposed as a cape.

Superman floats there, stern expression on his face before he addresses his family's enemy. "General. Would you care to step outside?"

* * *

_Author's Note: Know what Sandman is totally right. No revenge is worth having to put up with those two crazy lovebirds and yep, Carnage is sticking around this time. Yeah so poor Sophie Cuckoo bought it I'm afraid. I'm certain there was a time I meant to make that a bigger thing. In the long run, sadly, I always intended the Five-In-One to become the Three-in-One. Mostly for the effect it would have on Emma when she discovers who they really are. Wow, Clark's timing is just perfect. Almost like it's a plot contrivance. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; Graduation part 10._

_AN1: Hope y'all are remaining safe and well._


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

**Approx 30mins ago...**

Consciousness returns to one Clark Kent aka Kal-El, Last Son of Krypton. The last thing he remembers...the last thing...was…

"Raya!" he shouts as he shoots up from lying down to a sitting position. He frantically looks around.

He is no longer in the Phantom Zone.

In fact from the frigid ice of his surroundings he's somewhere with an Arctic climate. Getting acclimatised a bit more he realises he's in a small crater, one most likely made by his body when it hit the ground.

Rising to his feet he spots something familiar on the horizon. His Fortress of Solitude. Luckily, being summer, there is a big yellow ball in the sky, which at this time of year, never sets. He's not sure how long he's been lying here but long enough it seems for the sun to recharge his body as he zips into his Fortress.

The sight which greets him makes him go pale. The translucent glow of the Fortress's crystals was gone. Replaced by a dull purple.

Rao, what had happened here?

He zips over to the control console and tries to activate the holographic interface.

Nothing.

It's dead.

What has Brainiac done? What has he done with his misjudgement?

They are very good questions but ones he will have to answer later. He has to get back civilisation. He has to find Zod and correct his mistake as best he can.

Clark turns round to leave, only for his eyes to fall upon the suit. The one he got from the Collector. A little piece of home...like Raya had been.

He failed to save her but perhaps he can honour her and his people by wearing it. In all honesty he's not even sure what's been stopping him before now. In seconds he has put it on...and then he remembers what stopped him. It just didn't feel right? Look right? Like something was missing.

And yes, he knows, he knows. He doesn't have time for this internal debate when he needs to find Zod.

Clark is all about to fly off when out of the corner of his eye he spots his red blanket…

* * *

**The Present...**

Which leads us to here and now. Clark was just flying down the East Coast when he saw the beam of white energy erupt from the middle of Boston. While he couldn't be certain it was Zod, the fact that it was where Emma lived and that she had clearly made a deal with Brainiac...well too much of a coincidence to ignore even for the Big Dumb Alien, as Chloe loves to call him.

And now he was once again face to face with his family's greatest enemy. The destroyer of Krypton.

"Kal-El," Scott/Zod acknowledges him with annoyance.

"So tell me Zod? How many is enough? How many billions do you have to kill before you're satisfied? Was the genocide of our race not enough?" Superman asks, fury brimming in his voice, fire burning in his irises.

"They made their choice," Scott/Zod replies. "Their fate was their own doing," he says callously.

"They did not choose to die. You chose to murder them and now you try to do the same to humanity. As I told you before I will not let that happen."

"I don't know how you escaped the Zone, but you were safer where you were," Scott/Zod says, his anger at being thwarted burning through just before he launches himself at Superman and with a bone rattling impact the two disappear into the sky.

They leave behind a rather stunned mass of mutants.

"I know this is a totally inappropriate thought right now," Domino breaks the silence. "But damn!" she wolf-whistles. "Did he look hot."

"Oh mah Gawd, we are so not related," Rogue mumbles in embarrassment. Yeah, she agrees with that assessment. Of course Clark is hot but seriously? There's a time and a place.

Staring through the broken window at the point the two combatants vanished is Jean, her heart beating furiously. He was back. He was alive. The man she loves...and now, just like that, he was gone again, fighting not only for his own life but for every one on this planet. Fighting the possessed body of her ex-boyfriend.

Yep, that's gonna takes years of therapy to come to terms with.

For the moment Jean will settle for not falling apart in front of everyone. Especially Emma. Speaking of whom…

SLAP!

The sound echoes around the round as Jean leaves a very red mark on her hated rival's cheek for the 2nd time today. "Stupid bitch," she insults her fellow telepath. "I am not even going to waste my time asking what the hell you were thinking because it probably involved some worthless promise of wealth and power. That seems to be all you care about and to hell with the rest of the world right?! I don't even know what it is Scott saw in you. He kept seeing something I never have. He, actually, thinks you're worth it and how did you repay him, huh? Selling him out to Zod! A man who eradicated his own race! Are you happy now Emma? Did you get everything you wanted? Life is about more than accumulating wealth and power. It's about more than simple survival. It's about actually living the life you've been given to the full and if you're really, really lucky you'll find someone to share the joy of that life with but you'll never understand that. You'll live out your life stating that you're happy and fulfilled but in the end you'll die alone. Your wealth and power mean nothing when the end comes. You'll just be a sad, empty, hollow, dried out husk of a person. Frankly that's almost a better fate than you deserve," she says in a rather epic rant.

Afterwards Jean needs to take a few deep breaths.

"Feelin better?" Wolverine asks her, a small smirk of amusement pulling his lips.

"Little bit actually, yeah."

Wolverine shakes his head. Kids. He turns to Magik. "Can you trace them?"

The demon-sorceress gives him her best 'Are you kidding?!' look. "Do you know how fast they were travelling at? I may be powerful but I ain't Mary Sue."

"Mary who?"

Magik mutters in her native Russian a few choice insults.

"So are we done here?" Iceman asks.

"Yes. You are," Emma answers. "Leave," she orders them, having resisted any urge to rub her stinging cheek.

"Not quite yet, lass," Banshee contradicts her in his Irish lilt as he walks over to where both the briefcase and the broken remains of the hard drive lie. "No offence but I don't think ye should be keeping t'is," he says as he gathers the pieces of technology up.

"Good spot, Irish," Wolverine compliments his fellow teacher because yeah, how bad would it have been to have left this alien tech in Frosty's hands but otherwise, yeah, they're done. They have to see if there is any way they can track down Space-boy and help. Whatever mess Emma has gotten herself into...know what just leave her in it. They ain't the police and it's not their job to arrest her but surely there will be a day when their 'relationship' with the blond telepath will reach its final conclusion.

Forbidden technology in hand the X-Men depart...though Jean's mind is a million miles away on her boyfriend's fate.

"I wouldn't worry too much."

"Huh? Who? What? Sorry...Magik?" Jean queries as she spots who spoke to her there.

"Clark. I wouldn't worry too much," the blonde repeats herself.

"How can you say that?"

"You only get to know someone when you hunt them. I know Clark all too well. Did you see the way he just appeared, floating like that?"

"Yeah?" the red-head says, no clearer on what Illyana is driving at.

"He was putting on a deliberate show."

"And?"

"It means he has a plan. That was, like I said, a show. Clark's far more cunning and conniving than you imagine. They're the traits that turned me on the most."

It worries Jean that Illyana seems to know her own boyfriend better than she does. She would have never guessed that. She means she knows Clark keeps secrets but she also learned that pushing at him just makes him button up tighter. When he's ready to share she'll be here to listen. She sighs. "Still plans can go wrong," she raises a concern.

"Well maybe plans I don't make up, true," Illyana concedes, while boasting about herself. "I guess it depends on how much faith you have in him."

That gets Jean's ire up. Is Illyana questioning Jean's belief in the boy she's in love with? "I have complete faith in him," she says through almost gritted teeth.

"Ok then. That being the case you two interested in a threesome?"

Jean looks at Illyana twice. "W-what?" she says in a shocked whisper.

"It's like I said; when Clark's being all conniving and cunning I get turned on...and between us girls I miss the sex. I'm sure you understand why," the blond says with a smirk.

Jean stares at the sorceress. The problem with Illyana, is basically, like Clark, her mind is unreadable and Jean cannot for the life of her figure out when her boyfriend's ex is joking or being serious. Clark can...which just brings back her concerns about how well she really knows her boyfriend. Great. Terrific. Now she has doubts where before she was about to declare her undying love. God, Jean really, really hates her boyfriend's ex.

* * *

Speaking of her boyfriend, not to mention her own ex, he and Scott/Zod were flying through the air at great speed, grappling with each other, each trying to get leverage on the other, each with matching glares of hatred for the other.

Superman, of course, is hating the person inhabiting his friend's body.

By now they are far away from Boston, into the unpopulated wilderness and descending fast as they smash through trees and plough into the ground where Superman smashes his head into Scott/Zod's.

The two roll away in opposite direction before springing to their feet and then zipping towards each other. The two titans exchange blows, powerful enough to shake the ground before Scott/Zod ducks under one, spinning and delivers an elbow to Superman's gut. He then grabs his foe and throws him away.

Superman smashes into a massive tree which begins to fall over but he manages to kick his feet off of it and go airborne. Heat blazes from his eyes forcing Scott/Zod to dodge which was what Superman was wanting. He flies in, only to have his opponent move too swiftly as he anticipated the attack and smashes a kick into Superman's side, sending the younger Kryptonian spinning through the air until he crashes into a large boulder.

In an instant Scott/Zod is on top of him, smashing powerful blows into his face. "Did you really think you could win?!" the Kryptonian General yells at his enemy's son, his anger threatening for just a moment to override his normally iron control. "You're an idealistic fool. Like your father," he says with disdain.

The taste of blood fills Superman's mouth as the boulder begins to disintegrate under his form. Ok, this is going almost as badly as last time and last time he got thrown into the Phantom Zone. He manages to get a foot against Scott/Zod's torso and pushes his foe away with a cry of effort. Wasting not even an instant he flies forward and this time is the one to smash a shoulder into his opponent's gut and the two plough once more into the ground.

Now it's Superman's turn to rain the blows in...only for his right arm to get caught, twisted and before he knows what is happening he is face down in the dirt and Zod is wrenching his arm behind his back until something pops.

Namely Clark's shoulder out of its socket.

Dear Rao, does that hurt!

Kicks pepper into him next until one is hard enough to both send him flying and probably break a rib...maybe two but Superman gets no time to recover before he is being pounded into the ground over and over, deeper and deeper.

Does the phrase 'Out of his league' ring true here?

The blows stop and Superman coughs painfully.

Scott/Zod stands over his fallen opponent, hands behind his back, taking a moment to rein his emotions back in. "After your defeat of Nam-Ek and Aethyr I expected better," he says in disappointment, almost like a teacher talking to a failing student.

Superman gets back up to his knees. "In...all honesty..._cough, cough..._so did I."

"Yield, Kal-El. You cannot defeat me any more than your father did."

Superman manages to rise back to his feet, holding his dislocated arm against his body in a protective manner. "But he did defeat you," he argues. "Or were all those years in the Phantom Zone just an illusion?"

Scott/Zod's expression darkens as his memories of being a bodiless wraith rise up within his mind. Lesser men would have been driven insane by such an experience but he is Zod.

"It matters not either way. I will not let you destroy this planet as you destroyed our home," Superman tells him, though it doesn't seem likely he can win. With only one working arm this looks a truly hopeless battle.

"You will die in the attempt," Scott/Zod states factually as he sees it.

"Been there. Done that. Death holds no fear for me."

And Zod can see from the look in Kal-El's eyes that that is a true statement. Admirable. "Perhaps you do not fear death but what of your friends, Kal-El?" That gets a reaction. Fear does flash across the young Kryptonian's face. "I will kill them, Kal-El," he promises. "Slowly. Painfully. And I will make you watch," he ups the threat. "Or you can accept an alternative."

Superman's eyes dart back and forth. "What alternative?" he finds himself asking, though with great reluctance.

"Swear your allegiance to me and the ones you love the most will be allowed to live," Scott/Zod makes the offer. Why, you may ask? Because with the destruction of the hard drive, to achieve his goals, Zod needs a new plan and those plans will now have to involve Kal-El. It's simple pragmatism. "Kneel, Kal-El. Kneel before Zod and those you love will live," he instructs his beaten foe. Also a tiny part of Zod just may get some satisfaction in seeing Jor-El's son not only on his knees before him but being his servant. If only his dear old friend was still around to see that.

Superman's expression is one of a man deeply torn by the choices he is facing but what does further resistance achieve? He can't win. That much is clear. If he continues Zod will kill him and then no-one will be left to stop him so with a heavy heart he drops to his knees...and then bends over, coughing hard again, his cape covering most of his form. When his coughing fit stops he looks up to see Scott/Zod has extended a hand. Obviously he expects Clark to take it as a show of his loyalty. Again with great reluctance he does so.

A few moments later Scott/Zod gasps as an energy washes over him.

Superman's bloodied lips curl up slightly. "My father sends his regards."

Scott/Zod turns his hand over to find a crystal in it. The crystal Raya had.

* * *

**Flashback...**

_In hindsight Clark probably did know what Raya was about to do but right now as he looks into her pale blue eyes he is just confused...about many things._

_Part of him so desperately wants to trust her. Believe in her. To finally have met one of his own people who, not only, wasn't a criminal but actually knew his biological parents. Someone who could finally answer all those questions he has._

_On the other side another part of him is screaming about how he can't trust her. That she could well be just another criminal. After all this is a prison for the worst of the worst. Therefore she is lying to him, to earn his trust because he's her ticket out of this hellhole._

_It's that moment of indecision that allows her to get away from him and use herself as a distraction but before she goes she leaves him a gift. When she squeezed his hand she left behind the crystal she had been using to protect herself...but Clark doesn't have time to think on it right now as he heaves his body over the rise and sprints for the portal..._

…

…

_Yeah, so, this fight is going badly. Clark does not know what Brainiac did to alter Scott's body but no matter how hard he tries Zod always seems a little bit faster, a little bit stronger, not to mention that it's very clear Zod is a much better fighter._

_That's not really a surprise when you think about it. For all his training at the Institute Clark is still just a 19year old kid. Zod is an experienced General. Supposedly one of the best soldiers Krypton ever produced._

_And the result is inevitable. Clark down on the ground beaten, his right arm basically immobile with Zod making, what the young Kryptonian knows, are worthless promises about sparing his loved ones. He heaves over, coughing, his chest killing him. Something is definitely broken and it will heal if he had a few minutes...but he doesn't. Zod is looming over him, waiting for an answer. Was this how he planned it to pan out? No. Of course he hoped that he could figure out a way to win the fight but now that that has failed it's time to improvise a plan B. _

_Clark's cape hides most of his form and as long as Zod doesn't use his x-ray vision he hopefully won't see Clark's left hand reach up under the collar of his suit and pull out the string, attached to which is the crystal. Clark had been wearing it backwards, so that his cape hid the outline of the crystal under his suit. That may have been another reason he chose to use his blanket in such a manner. He has been waiting and looking for the right moment to use it and with Zod giving him an opening that moment has come as he snaps the string and clutches the crystal in his left hand before he reaches up and pretends to take Zod's hand in a show of 'loyalty'._

'_Loyalty,' he mentally snorts. To the person responsible for Krypton's destruction and his parents' deaths. Yeah, right. That'll be the day._

* * *

**The present…**

Clark watches as Scott/Zod's form convulses.

"Jor-El!" Scott/Zod roars in outrage. "Noooo!" he howls in despair as he feels himself start to get ripped out of this body.

Clark watches on as a wraith-like form starts to be pulled away from Scott's body, encased in the white energy of the crystal. He can even see the fuzzy outline of a bearded face, the mouth open, screaming in rage and fury though there is no sound emerging.

Then suddenly the form is sucked down into the crystal.

For a moment Scott's body stands there, swaying before it topples over. The crystal falls from his hand, leaving behind a burn mark scorched into the skin.

Clark bends down and feels for a pulse with his one good hand and is relieved to find one. He then picks up the crystal and looks at it. Sadness overcomes his features. "Thank you Raya," he says, his tone tinged with grief, in appreciation to the woman who sacrificed her life to give him this chance.

And at least, in her memory, he can say he didn't squander it.

It's over.

He did it.

He won.

Yet it doesn't feel much like a victory.

It came at too high a price.

So yep, definitely one of _those _days.

* * *

_Author's Note: In the episode Clark gets his ass kicked easily because of course he does. He's an untrained 19 year old and Zod is a freakin General. Now my Clark isn't untrained but he's still only 19 and Zod should be his superior in combat. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; the wrap up of this story begins in One Journey has Ended._

_AN1: As always hope everyone is keeping safe and well in these trying times._


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"One journey has ended. Another is about to begin." Jor-El to Clark Kent.

As consciousness returns to Charles Xavier he has to reflect that that was an experience he could do without ever repeating. Having his mind trapped in a limbo between the physical and astral planes. Since time is kind of meaningless there he wonders how much actual time has passed. His eyes open to be met by the sight of a warm, familiar and welcome face. "Hank."

"Welcome back old friend," Hank says warmly, happiness percolating through at seeing his friend awake once again. "How was the trip?" he quips as he helps Charles up to a sitting position.

Charles manages a small laugh as he gazes around the infirmary. All seems...normal. "How long has it been?"

"A week," Hank informs him as he goes through the routine tests.

"What happened?" Charles asks since he has no idea.

Hank sighs. "Brainiac. Brainiac happened. He infected all electronic and digital devices connected to the internet with a virus that disrupted and shut everything down. Including Cerebro just as you were using it."

"Inducing a psychic seizure," Charles works out what happened to him.

"Yes."

"How did we do?" Charles has to ask.

"There were wins and there were losses. Which do you wish to hear about first?"

"Lets start with the big picture. Did we succeed in stopping Brainiac?"

"Short answer no with a but. Long answer yes with an addendum of that's a long story."

"Yes or no, Hank?"

"No, in the sense that Brainiac succeeded in freeing Zod. Yes, in the sense that Earth is still Earth and no, we're not all enslaved. As I said Charles it's a long story."

"I have a strange sense I'm not going anywhere," Charles says back humorously.

"True enough," Hank concedes as he goes gets himself a chair and sits down beside his old friend. He then tells the story of Zod being freed and Clark being imprisoned in the Phantom Zone. Emma's involvement in the whole thing. The Hellions. Just how close Zod actually came to transforming Earth into a New Krypton and how Clark returned to stop him.

"So Zod is gone?" Charles seeks to clarify.

Hank nods. "From what Clark understands, which admittedly is limited, the crystal extracted Zod's essence from Scott's body and sent it back into the Phantom Zone."

"How is Scott doing?" Charles asks with concern over one of his oldest students.

"Whatever Brainiac did to enhance Scott the crystal undid it. He's just a plain old Homo-Mutatis again like the rest of us. He doesn't remember anything of that whole day. Hasn't stopped him feeling responsible despite the fact none of it was his doing."

Yes. That sounded like Scott.

"Though there were some...side-effects from Zod's possession."

"Like?"

* * *

**1 week ago...**

Scott Summer's eyes flicker open...and upon doing so he gets one of the biggest shocks of his life.

He gasps, shooting to an upright position before a large hairy hand comes to rest on his shoulder.

"Easy Scott. Take it easy," Beast tries to calm the young man down.

"C-colour," the Alaskan native stammers. "T-the world," he gasps, trying to inhale. "My shades?" he queries, actually reaching up to his face to look for them.

What he is trying very badly to say is that he is seeing the world in its full multi-coloured glory. Well the Institute infirmary at least.

"Relax," Beast tells him. "Everything is fine."

"Fine?" Scott queries in disbelief. "I...I don't even remember what happened? What did happen? Why am I here?"

"What is the last thing you do remember?"

Scott's face scrunches up as he thinks. "Going to bed," is his rather unhelpful reply.

"When?" Beast asks.

Scott looks at him puzzled.

"What day, Scott?"

Scott gives his answer. The day before Graduation.

"Graduation was yesterday, Scott."

"It was?!"

Beast nods.

"What happened to me?"

"You better sit down."

"I'm in bed."

"Touché," Beast jests. "Ok, it goes like this," he says and then tells Scott everything that happened. To be abducted and altered by Brainiac. To becoming the vessel for Zod and Zod's subsequent actions bringing the world to the brink of destruction.

Scott rubs his face. Good God. What did he do? "Was...was I really that much of a jerk?" he asks.

"It wasn't you Scott."

"No. I mean before Zod. When I was here in the infirmary," he is referring to.

"Still wasn't you. Brainiac had altered you….which is the explanation for your eyes, by the way."

"It is?"

"Your inability to control your powers was never an inherent flaw in them, Scott. It was caused by the head trauma you received when you were young, damaging the sections of your brain that would otherwise have controlled your powers."

"I know that."

"Well Brainiac, seemingly, repaired the damage. I guess it decided it was unacceptable for Zod's vessel to be 'flawed' in any way."

"So...I can...control my powers now?" he asks, his voice portraying his sheer disbelief at that possibility.

"Should be able to. Every test I have run says you're back to normal. You just need to train and learn how to use your abilities."

Scott nods. There is silence for several moments before he speaks again "And did..."

"Did?"

He just comes out and asks it, no matter how reluctantly. "Did Emma really make a deal with Brainiac?"

"Apparently so," Beast says sadly. It is sadly because like most people here he wants to see the best in others but some days...some days it is difficult.

Scott rubs his face again. He was so horrible to Clark and Jean...and turns out they were right all along. Jean was right. What the hell is wrong with him that he can't see what Emma is? Jesus, where does that even leave their relationship? How can he just go back to her after all this?

Though he will have to go see her. Confront her. He needs answers, dammit. He has to know why.

"That girlfriend of yours is fucking evil!" a loud voice proclaims as entering the infirmary, being assisted by Tarot, is a limping Roulette.

"I warned you not to antagonise her. She's rather possessive of me. As I am of her," the French girl reminds her friend.

"All I did was suggest an open relationship!"

"You snogged me right in front of her."

"Don't act like you didn't enjoy it."

"I'm neither straight nor dead, Jen but I am in a committed relationship."

Roulette grins through her pain. "That wasn't a denial," she sing-songs. "I knew you had the hots for me!"

Tarot rolls her eyes. "You think everyone has the hots for you. Male, female or other."

"That's because they do. Have you seen me?"

"All of you actually. You've never been exactly shy or modest about your body."

"Why the fuck would I hide this perfection?"

"Yeah," Tarot hums. "So does that mean you and Alex are not hooking back up?" she asks about Havok since Jen dated him for awhile previously.

Roulette rolls her head from side to side. "Maybe. Maybe not. I've only been here a day. I need to think about it."

Beast clears his throat to get the two friends' attention. "I don't want to know the details. Just tell me what hurts," he says to them.

* * *

**The present...**

"Wait, wait, wait," Charles interrupts the story. "Why was Ms Stavros still here?" he asks.

Beast's eyes widen slightly. "Oh, right. Sorry," he apologises. "I skipped over a bit."

"Which bit?"

* * *

**1 week ago...**

Storm had asked the Hellions, basically, for a few minutes of their time and then, like she said, they were free to leave but before she can begin…

"Hey! What about me?!" comes Empath's whiny voice as he is still pinned under Penance. No-one, X-Man or Hellion seems to care all that much about aiding him.

"Oh do shut up, Manuel," Magma almost snarls in hate. "If I had my way I would be blowing your lying, despicable arse out of a volcano. Give me an excuse. I'm begging you."

That finally seems to get him to shut up for 5 minutes and allow Storm to speak.

"Once upon a time I was your teacher's teacher. I taught Emma and while clearly she never quite agreed with our philosophy of peaceful coexistence with humans I really hope she has not given up the notion of peaceful coexistence with fellow mutants. Unless I'm mistaken? Tell me do you hate us?"

"It's not about hate. It's about who is superior," Hellions replies.

"Ah," Storm says, seeing what she is having to work with here. "And how did being 'superior' work out for you when you were being used as dogsbodies by the Hellfire Club? How did it help you when that relationship came to its end? How did it help you when you once again were getting used right here and now to aid in the destruction of our world? You do know that it is very likely, even if we survived, we would be nothing but slaves on our own world."

"You going to get to anything resembling a point anytime soon?" Bevatron asks impatiently.

"Indulge me just a few moments longer," Storm requests of them. "Today was Graduation Day at Bayville High and before she was rudely interrupted Principal Danvers was talking about the potential we all possess. You, all of you," she gestures at the Hellions with her hand, "are supremely gifted young people with massive potential but let me ask you this; After everything that has happened can you honestly say Emma is helping you realise that potential? Or is she squandering your gifts for her own selfish ends...and it saddens me to say that about my former student, believe you me. In fact I could ask the legitimate question about whether Emma is wasting her own potential but that is a discussion to have with her another time. Let me finish by saying this; Graduation is a key moment in a young person's life. It stands on the threshold of adulthood, when you must make the choices that could very well define much of the rest of your life. I can offer you all a choice. I can offer you another path to fulfil your great potential."

"What path?" Jetstream asks suspicious.

"The same one your former teammates Claire, Marie, Sooraya, Angelica and yes even Penance chose. To join us here at the Xavier Institute."

"You must be kidding," the young woman, Nocturne is her codename, Rogue had been fighting earlier snorts in derision.

Storm lets that comment wash off her back. "It's completely up to you. The gate is there," she points at it. "Leave if you wish. No-one will stop you but before you do ask yourself what exactly is it you are returning to. Ask yourself what exactly it is you wish to achieve with your lives and ask yourself where might be the place to help you achieve your goals. The choice is yours."

The Hellions share looks with each other. Remember these are all young people. Teenagers who are facing, perhaps, the first major crossroads in their lives. Which choice will they make?

Is one journey about to reach its end and is another about to begin?

* * *

**The present...**

"How many chose to join us?" Charles asks the question since at least one did.

"Hmm, let me see here," Beast ruminates as he thinks on it. "Well Ms Stavros, obviously. Most likely due to the pull of her friendship with Marie. In a similar vein Ms Smith due to her friendship with Rahne."

Charles nods along. The power and effect of friendship is something Emma always seems to underestimate and doesn't give much credence to.

"Also Ms Blaire who said something about you offering her a place to, and I quote, 'crash'."

"I did," Charles recalls his failed attempt to recruit Ali.

"Lets see who else. For, I believe, obvious reasons, Monet's twin sisters, Claudette and Nicole, who, by the way, are a Gestalt."

Charles' face lights up in scientific interest. "How fascinating."

"Yes, those were my words too. From what I know, in theory, when they join together they can do almost anything. They could possibly be Omega level mutants...but only together. Apart they're just 'normal'," the large hairy mutant says with a shrug of not quite understanding it...yet but he intends to.

That's going to truly be a fascinating study for Charles but lots of time for that.

"Just one more...and a rather surprising one actually. Mr Keller."

"Hellion?" Charles questions that, genuinely surprised. From what he knows of the young man's personality he couldn't see anything but Hellion having derision for what he teaches here.

"Indeed," Beast confirms. "Also he was rather insistent on keeping the codename but I think more as an insult to mock Emma rather than a tribute or compliment."

"Ah," Charles begins to see the reason why. "He's rather angry at her?"

"That's my guess. I do not think he appreciated being used. It may not be the ideal reason for one joining us but as long as he's here we can but try."

True enough and Charles will certainly try his best with the powerful young telekinetic to guide him to a better path. "So any more good news? Or are we at the bad news part of this?" he asks his friend.

"You sure you want to end it on bad news? Or shall I save the last bit of good news for the end?"

That was a good question. "Very well. Save it till the end. So what's the bad news?"

"Well the first bit depends on your point of view, really."

"What do you mean?"

"While Zod was stopped, for Clark, he thinks it came at too high a price. Mostly because he is blaming himself for Zod getting free in the first place. He's been pretty down on the whole situation all week. Though I have mostly left that to his family and Jean to deal with..."

* * *

**6 days ago...**

As you may recall Jean had decided that assuming Clark returned from the Phantom Zone she was going to tell him how much she loved him but in those scenarios in her head Clark was not this depressed.

They had won hadn't they?

Ok, it wasn't exactly the way they had all hoped but they had triumphed. Zod was banished back to the Phantom Zone. The Earth was safe and Scott was going to be ok(and on an aside her android friend Darci was fine too, being able to avoid getting infected by Brainiac's virus) yet Clark was walking around almost like they had lost.

Jean didn't know why. Mr and Mrs Kent didn't know why. Claire...well she was kinda distracted by the 'drama' around Marie and Roulette, now the blond, former Hellion was staying. Jean had only gotten the 2nd hand story on it from the 'Gossip Queen', Domino but whatever. Seems to Jean that Roulette is just trying to see what sort of reaction she could get. Answer is one that gets you a trip to the infirmary on your first day here.

Yeah, so, Jean's not sure if this is going to work having the former Hellions here. On the other hand what she would have given to see Emma's face when she learned that some of her precious students had defected. A tiny little malicious smile, rather unfitting on Jean's normally warm, compassionate face forms.

Anyway enough on thinking about Emma. Jean needs to think about her boyfriend and getting him to tell her what the matter is. She finds him up on the mansion roof, staring out at the ocean. She's not sure how she knew he was there. Just instinct really...or maybe it's just they're now so intimate her mind just knows where he is.

Jean floats herself up there and comes to stand beside him, looking out. Her hand reaches out and takes his and she can instantly feel the weight of his mind...or is that the weight on his mind. "I'm not being pushy," she starts with. "You take all the time you need and I'll be here for you. Just, you know, a reminder that I am here to carry the share."

Varying colours brush over her mind as do temperature. It seems to reflect an inner turmoil Clark is going through.

"It's broken," he breaks the silence.

"What is?"

"The Fortress. I messed up Jean. By trying to destroy Brainiac I gave it access and it used it to free Zod and somehow damaged the Fortress in the process. It's basically dead."

"I'm sorry," Jean sympathises with him. "I know how important it is to you but it's not your fault. You couldn't have known," she argues. "And you succeeded right? Brainiac is destroyed you said?"

"I believe so but it might have been too high a price. That Fortress...that was all that was left Jean," he says, his voice breaking.

"Of Krypton," she knows.

"Of any hope I could find a way to restore Kandor," he corrects her because now he no longer has access to any of the knowledge contained within. Without it where does he even begin?

"But you did what you needed to," she continues to argue. "Brainiac had to be stopped."

"I failed Jean," Clark argues back, his tone morose and defeated. "Zod was freed and I ended up imprisoned in the Phantom Zone."

"What was it like?"

"What? The Zone?"

Jean nods.

"Not as bad as Limbo but pretty hellish all the same. It was really just a grey, sandy desert if you ignore the Phantoms and other prisoners that want to kill you."

Jean can't help but feel Clark is not telling her everything. For example where he got that crystal from he used to defeat Zod. He had been pretty vague on it. Also the woman Tarot mentioned in her vision that would help him. He has said nothing and she's not sure how far to push him right now. Jean rests her head on his shoulder.

Clark closes his eyes. He can feel Jean's mind trying to comfort him. He has been struggling to know what to say. To process all that happened. To deal with his grief.

"I was afraid," Jean says softly. "Afraid I would never see you again," she almost chokes up.

"I'm sorry," he says, pulling her in close and kissing the top of her head.

Jean wraps her arms around his warm, solid body.

"I was afraid too. That while I was trapped in there Zod would be...that by the time I found a way out it would be too late," he says, his voice too choking with emotion. He had tried not to think on it, focussing instead on getting out but still he had imagined something pretty awful and it would have all been due to his failures.

"But you weren't."

"I would have been if it hadn't..." he stops himself, having almost spilled it.

Jean's brow furrows. What was he about to say there? "Hadn't?" she queries.

Clark sighs and finally tells it. "I had help escaping. A woman. A Kryptonian woman. Her name was Raya."

"Was?"

Clark tells her everything of his time in the Phantom Zone and Jean listens intently in silence. The grief, the guilt pours off off him so strongly it's almost visceral.

Clark sniffles as he gets to the end. "She sacrificed her life so I could escape, gave me the means to defeat Zod and I never trusted her, Jean. Not once," he says and now, added to all his other emotions, comes shame.

"That's not your fault," she assures him. "It was a perfectly reasonable assumption considering where you were," she tries to mediate his guilt.

"She wasn't one of them, the criminals. She was just an actual ordinary Kryptonian. She knew my parents. She...was like me, Jean and now she's dead and I can never ask her all those questions I have. I can never thank her for what she did."

"I'm sorry," she says, rubbing his back. "I know how much that would have meant to you."

"Why did she do that, Jean?" he asks the stark question that has been haunting him. "We could have found another way. A way to escape together," he says even if it's a statement based more in hope than fact.

"I can only guess that she thought you escaping was worth her own life."

Clark makes a pained noise. "You mean she thought my life was worth more than hers," he corrects her. "That's rubbish. My life is worth no more or less than anyone else's."

"And that is what makes you a hero, Clark," Jean tells him. "As for Raya...there is very little I can say to make you feel better. She's gone and I'm sorry you're hurting. If I could thank her I would because she brought you back to me. That probably sounds selfish of me but love makes one a little selfish."

Clark stiffens in her arms. "Love?" he asks, his voice deep.

Jean's green eyes widen slightly. Oh. She finds herself face to face with him as he looks at her intently, his cerulean blue eyes boring deep. She bites her lower lip as she decides what to say. "This...this wasn't exactly how I was planning to tell you," she says, shyly, tucking her red hair behind her ear. She laughs nervously. "In all honesty I wasn't sure how I was going to tell you. Just that after you disappeared in Smallville, that as soon as you got back I was-hmpff!"

Anything else she was going to say is cut off by Clark's lips on hers. His tongue intermingling with hers. His body next to hers. God, she's getting so hot right now. She's _this _close to not caring they're standing on the roof for the whole world to see.

Eventually her need to breathe has her gently push back at her boyfriend's chest. He, reluctantly, ends it and rests his head against hers while she sucks in some much needed oxygen. Him, not so much. Then again he can hold his breath for like an hour or something. He holds her gently, his eyes overflowing with emotion. His right hand brushing over cheek, his thumb stroking the skin.

"I love you," he says.

Jean smiles widely. "Really?"

Clark nods and Jean looks at him, studies him. Right now is not the powerful alien hero. Right now is the shy Kansas farm boy. It's such a weird contrast but this one, the farm boy, the adorkable one is the one she really, really loves so she tells him. "I love you too. I have for awhile now. I was just...nervous about saying it. Not sure why."

"Well I could make a list," he teases earning him a sardonic look. "But that would probably get me into trouble."

Jean arches an eyebrow. "Probably?" she queries in sceptical tones.

"Ok, definitely get me into trouble."

The two lovers share a warm laugh together and kiss again before falling into a deep hug.

"You going to be ok?" Jean asks him, knowing, of course, that he is still deeply upset over Raya.

Previously Clark would have probably uttered a rather bland line about how surviving is what he's good at but ever since he got together with Jean that emptiness within has been retreating so instead he says, "I will be. Just...you'll be here, right?"

Jean tightens her hold. "Of course I will.

Clark just sinks into the soft, warm, curvy frame of his girlfriend, letting his mind get comfort from snuggling around her own. Yes, he still feels sad over Raya but he knows that as long as he's with Jean everything will be ok in the end.

Just then his phone rings.

"Oh come on!" Jean cries in annoyance. Can't they get one freaking minute to themselves here!

"Sorry," Clark mutters apologetically as he fishes his phone out, forcing him to break out of the embrace. You know in another time and place Jean's expression of exasperation and frustration would be funny. He checks the ID and answers. "Jess?" he queries and the Jess he is talking to is Drew not Jones. "Wait, slow down, Jess," he begs of the babbling girl who is talking so fast even he can't keep up. "Now, what's happened to Kitty?"

Jean's eyebrows shoot up and she lightly gasps, bringing her hands over her mouth. God, Kitty. She had almost forgotten. Bad Jean, she mentally scolds herself but in her defence apart from the world ending she just assumed Peter was dealing with it. From Clark's quickly darkening expression she can guess that Peter hasn't dealt with it. On, no! What has happened?

* * *

**The present...**

Beast gets to the part he had been dreading. Mostly because he is as torn up inside as anyone. That could be why he didn't mention it first. "Charles, we need to talk about Kitty," his voice grim.

Charles almost doesn't need to be psychic to know what this is about. "Carnage."

Beast nods. "Kitty's gone, Charles. We've lost her," he says, his voice breaking with sadness.

Charles rubs his brow, sadness welling up inside. It had been breaking his heart watching the happy, full of life girl get slowly eroded away by the darkness of the symbiote. He asks for details and Beast gives them as best he knows. That Kitty went to New York with Peter, fought the Sinister Six and during the fight Carnage re-emerged and took over before she vanished.

"We can't find her," Beast goes on to say. "Logan tried to follow her scent but he lost it in the sewers. She knew just what to do to mask it. Jean also tried with Cerebro but her signature isn't showing up."

"The symbiote must be distorting it beyond recognition," Charles theorises.

"That was my best guess as well," Beast says with a long, sad sigh. "In all honesty Charles none of us knows what to do. What can we do if we can't find her?" he asks the question no-one has an answer to.

"We don't give up hope," Charles gives an answer. "I know this from the visions I saw of the future from Apocalypse. Kitty was in them. Though there was a...weight on her I couldn't understand at the time." Though now perhaps he can.

Well that does seem like a sliver of hope and frankly Beast will take it. "So I'll end this update on the happier note I mentioned."

"Which is?"

"Ororo's pregnant," Beast just says it.

Charles' eyebrows almost hit the ceiling. "That's wonderful news, Hank," he says, truly delighted for his friend. "How did Logan take it?" he has to wonder.

Beast smiles coyly.

* * *

**3 days ago...**

Lots of things had gotten in the way. Dealing with the aftermath of Zod's almost destruction of Earth. The settling in of the former Hellions. Kitty.

That last one saddens Ororo Munroe more than she can almost put into words. It's heartbreaking to imagine that sweet, cheerful girl twisted into a monster.

Anyway it had meant Ororo had not taken the time to verify whether what Zod said was true or not.

Until today.

Until right now.

Until she is holding that plastic stick in her hand.

Until that little pink line appears confirming it.

Until she is handing said plastic stick with said pink line over to the father to be.

Logan's reaction had been one of blinking.

Really. He just stood there blinking for a good minute or two.

If it wasn't impossible due to his healing factor Ororo would start to worry he was having a stroke.

Then came the words, "There ain't enough beer in the world for this."

That was...actually a better reaction than she imagined.

Then they talked. Really talked. Logan's...concerns were rather predictable really. His concerns he had no idea how to be a father. Seriously? He's practically a father to a school full of kids and that is even before we get onto Rogue, his actual daughter. His natural worries over his enemies finding out. Ororo had pointed out they all had lots of enemies, her included.

As for Ororo herself, her own feelings...she was beyond happy. Yes, there was a natural worry but the more she thought about it, thought about that little life growing inside her the more she imagined the joy that would come about. She remembers how happy her sister Vivian was when Evan was born.

Ooh, her sister. She'll have to tell her. That'll be...something else...and she also wants to go do it in person rather than over the phone.

But first comes the family that lives with them. Rogue and Domino.

Domino's reaction had been a "Way to go old man! Didn't know you still had it in you!"

Logan had been _this _close to killing her.

Beyond that Dom had seemed very excited about becoming an aunt, boasting how she'll be the best aunt ever.

Rogue's reaction, naturally, had been a lot more subdued. To be honest she was in shock. She hadn't thought about her dad and Storm having a kid. Though in hindsight it would have had to come up at some point. She guesses she is happy for them but Jesus, that's going to make her a sister...and it's different to X-23 because she barely ever sees her dad's cloned offspring. It's going to be different from Dom as well because her fellow Weapon X progeny is actually older than she is. We're talking about a baby here that she would be the big sister of. How on Earth is she going to manage this?

Mentioning X-23 Dom had to raise another fine point. "Can I be the one to tell Laura?" she requests.

Logan swore. The kid. He hadn't forgotten his erstwhile clone exactly. They had all wanted her to have an as normal life as possible after the way she was created as a weapon so beyond phone calls and the occasional meet up they had left her living with her mother, Dr Sarah Kinney in San Francisco. Damn, how the hell was he going to explain this to her?

* * *

**The present...**

Charles ruminates over everything Beast has told him. His friend was correct. They were some wins and some losses. Though he does have a question. "What does the rest of the world know about what happened?"

"Nothing much. Just speculation mostly over the 'super-virus' that almost crippled everything. About where it came from. You have countries blaming each other over it as some sort of cyber-attack but I doubt that'll turn into anything serious beyond the bellicose rhetoric. The global earthquakes are a little harder to explain off in the same manner."

"Let me guess; they're blaming mutants," Charles says with depressing inevitability.

Beast shrugs. What can he say because yep, the usual suspects are blaming mutants for it. "For what it is worth the world is back in more or less working order. Law and order has been restored and all crucial infrastructure is functioning again. There's still cleaning up going on after all the rioting and looting and we're sending teams out in shifts into Bayville to help with that but things look like they will get back to normal soon enough."

So where do they go from here? What do they do?

What they always do. Persevere. Live their lives by the philosophy and beliefs they have chosen. The alternative is and always has been unthinkable for Charles Xavier. They will protect this world even when it hates and fears them. The cause they fight for; mutant equality has neither an end nor a beginning. It is simply a journey they have chosen to embark on because it's right.

* * *

_Author's Note: It didn't make sense to me that just because Clark removed Zod, Scott would just go back exactly the way he was before. Yeah, the Kryptonian powers are gone but so is the brain damage that prevented Scott being able to control his blasts. Once Brainiac repaired it, it would stay repaired. It's a version of Scott that is rarely seen. I had a long think over the Hellions and decided that in the end only a small number would actually join the Institute. That's not to say they all went back to Emma. Some may have just quit and gone home but the story for Emma and her Hellions is far from done yet so some were needed to stay with her. And yes siree, Storm is indeed pregnant. Just wait until the mood swings start. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; One Journey has Ended part 2._

_AN1: Hope y'all are continuing to stay safe and well._


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

**New York...**

Webslinging was usually one of the things that could help Peter clear his head but ever since he lost Kitty nothing could clear his head. Nothing could make him feel better. Nothing could heal his broken heart.

It had been 2 weeks but for Peter it had felt like an eternity. He can barely remember the last time he hadn't held Kitty in his arms for 2 days, let alone 2 weeks.

He was craving her. Craving her company, her voice, her laugh, the feel of her petite frame against his and it had always seemed to him that they fitted together so naturally.

Craving their little joky competitions about whose the bigger geek. It's him, by the way, just in case you couldn't guess.

He loved her. Even more intensely than he thought he did. Being without her is like a living hell.

And for anyone who had encountered Spider-Man the result of this enforced separation was obvious. He didn't joke. He didn't talk. He just showed up, webbed up the morons and left.

Peter did it because he didn't know what else to do. If he just sat around doing nothing he would go absolutely insane because all he could think about was her. He kept replaying it over and over again in his head, trying to work out some way he could have done it differently. Work out some way he could have reached her under all that psychotic goop. He almost did. He was sure he almost reached her but they got interrupted.

Parker luck. It's always the same.

There's been absolutely no sign of her. Nor a trail of corpses or missing people...which is a good thing by the way. Her not embarking on a killing spree is a sign not all is lost.

Spider-Man comes to land on the ledge where his good buddy, Bruce the stone Gargoyle lives. "Hiya Bruce," he greets the inert statue. "Don't suppose you've got any insight into what I do do ya?"

Nope.

Nothing.

Spider-Man rubs his face, trying not to cry. He's done plenty of that these last 2 weeks. The most he's cried since he lost Uncle Ben.

"Hello, Pete."

Spider-Man's head shoots to his right and there, on the other side of Bruce is, "Kitty!" he cries for joy. He's about to leap over to her but is stopped by a raised hand and a shake of her head. He then takes in her appearance. She isn't...well Carnage. Not in the traditional monstrous appearance. She's in a long red trench coat, black top and pants and boots. From his experience with Venom Peter knows the symbiote can imitate normal clothes. There also seems something...different about her. Less of the chaotic mad energy. Something more restrained and controlled.

"We're sorry We left you. We needed time to think," she says, in her own soft voice and not the double voice of Carnage. "You gave us some things to think about. You were right before. Last time We didn't speak like this but..." she shakes her head. "We've been trying to think on how to make you understand."

"Understand what, Kitty?"

She sighs. "Will you please stop calling us that," she complains. "We're not Kitty," she protests the use of that name.

"You are Kitty," he argues back. "I don't care what that thing possessing you is trying to pretend I know you're in there."

She rubs her head as if trying to assuage a headache. "See, this is exactly what We want to make you understand. Everyone has got it wrong. Even Kitty was in denial for a long time."

"Denial about what?"

"Look, We want you to let us talk," she requests. "No fighting. No attempting to capture us. If you still love us just listen, please."

"Of course I love you," he says, his voice overflowing with emotion. "Nothing can make me stop."

She smiles. "We're glad to hear you say that," she says, relief in her voice. "We love you too."

Peter's heart swells a little. At least, as twisted as it might be, she still loves him. He peels off his mask so she can see his face. He is rather dishevelled looking, understandably. "Ok. I'll listen. I promise," he says because if he wants to save her he needs to understand her. Needs to understand who she is right now. What motivates her. What she is planning to do.

She nods. "So...after We were born the first time and then made to 'go away'," she says with what sounds like burning anger under the surface at being made to 'go away'. "Everyone thinks, you included, that Kitty was traumatised by the 'horrors' of our mind. Even Kitty tried to claim the same but she was in denial. The trauma, if you want to call it that, wasn't her revulsion of us."

"Then what was it?"

"The 'trauma' was caused by how drawn she was to our so-called darkness. How much she actually enjoyed it. Revelled in it. It was the shock of revelation as her true nature was revealed to her."

Peter shakes his head. "I can't believe that," he says because he knows Kitty. She was so sweet and kind. She would never find any pleasure in the things Carnage does.

"Kitty was in denial too, for the same reason. Because this world tries to impose a set of rules that we are all suppose to live by but what makes their rules, their so-called moral and ethics the correct ones, hmm? Here's a revelation. Nothing makes their rules correct. That is what Kitty had been becoming to realise, to accept, admittedly slowly and when Kraven stabbed us, as We stood on the brink of death, she also realised she had no more time to live with her denials any longer. She came to understand and accept the truth."

"What truth?"

"That the symbiote was not some foreign invader trying to take her over. It was the other half of her soul and all those 'dark' impulses were not something that came from without but came from within."

"You cannot expect me to believe that. Kitty...you don't have darkness like that."

"We all have what some might classify as darkness. Are you going to deny it, Pete? Or do We have to remind you of that which you have confessed? What impulses made you wrestle in that underground fight club? What impulses made you let that thief get away? What impulses made you almost kill him? You said it yourself that it was only your Uncle's words that stopped you."

Peter closes her eyes as the pain of those memories well up inside him. Worse still is she's not wrong. He was shallow and selfish and greed had a part as well. When he let that thief go past him to spite the owner who stiffed him on money...he'll admit he felt pretty good about it at that exact moment. Probably even smiled a bit but at what cost? A point he makes to her. "And what is the cost to you, to your soul, of embracing this darkness, Kitty? Do you even know?"

She makes a face at him. ** "And what cost was it to us when you ripped us in half?!"** she snaps, her voice taking on Carnage's echo, showing she is still angry as hell over that. She takes a moment to collect herself again and her voice returns to just Kitty's. "Because that's what happened before when We were forced to 'go away'. For months Kitty was grappling with, groping around in the dark, trying to understand why she felt so empty and hollow inside. She came to understand it was because half her soul had been torn away and what you want, what our friends want, is to put her back in that state. **You claim to love us yet want us to live as ****only**** half a person?!" **her anger burns through again.

"This is not you!" Peter snaps back, gesturing at her. "I know!"

"Oh really?" she says sceptically. "Why? Because of Venom?" She grins savagely. "Just to remind you, sweetheart, you admitted to us that you miss the old man and he never really completely bonded with you. Now take that feeling and multiple by it by infinity and you come nowhere close to what it felt like for **us to be ripped in two!**" she snarls, her anger breaking through every time she is forced to remember it.

Peter looks at her, struggling with his emotions. Part of him wants to feel sympathy, sorrow for her pain but then he remembers that this is not Kitty. Not really.

She takes a few moments reining in her emotions before speaking again. "In the end Kitty accepted this to be true. That they only way she could find peace was to reunite her soul. You probably think that the symbiote took her over against her will. Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposite in fact. Kitty opened the door of her own free will. Kitty initiated the rejoining of Our soul. Kitty had come to understand that what she was before was only half a person and that this is her true, whole form. You said We were different. That is why. Kitty wasn't ready or prepared last time. She couldn't understand what was happening. It was all too much, too fast, too overwhelming. It left Our two halves out of sync with each other. That's what We've come to understand over the last couple of weeks."

Peter is at a loss for words. Her face is so earnest, so open, so honest as she speaks what is her heart's truth. Next thing he knows she is there, face to face with him, her hands against the wall, her arms bracketing him in, their bodies virtually touching on the narrow ledge and it takes all his self-control not to just grab her and kiss her and do all the things his body has been aching for, for 2 long weeks. He looks deep into her blue eyes with her pupils red instead of black and it's similar to what he noticed earlier about the different aura of energy. There is not the same glint of chaotic madness that he's seen before. It's...something else. Something new. What, he doesn't know but there is a definite difference to last time. Perhaps she has simply had time to clam down.

"We love you," she says, breathy. "But you need to understand and accept the same truth Kitty did. That this is who We truly are. We are not Kitty with a symbiote added on. We are one and the same. **We are Carnage**...and there is no turning back. No undoing this. This you must understand and accept. We love you. We want to be with you but you must be able to love us as We are now. If all you can love is half of us..." she shakes her head as if trying to push that horrid thought away. "You would never accept someone only loving half of you, would you?"

She has no idea how much an impact those words make because it makes Peter flashback to Felicia. She loved the Spider-Man part of him. The Peter Parker side not so much. He had hooked up with her under the influence of Venom but after he separated himself from the symbiote and she got to meet the real him she was no longer interested. The real him was not 'exciting' enough or something. Whatever. Her loss. He found someone better. "No," he says quietly, with great reluctance having to agree she has a point. "But Kitty...I can't..." he struggles to formulate his thoughts into words.

"Shh," she silences him with a finger to his lips. "You need time to adjust. We understand. In truth We need time as well. Technically speaking We're only about 2 weeks old...which I'm afraid, sweetie, kinda means you've been fucking jailbait," she says with a playful quirk to her lips.

The look Peter gives her could make Dr Doom wet his iron britches.

It makes her laugh in delight before she gets more serious. "There is a lot about ourselves We have yet to grasp. Before...We got so caught up in the thrill of being born. We wanted to just...experience everything at once. This time We want to take our time, savour our life," she tries to explain her thinking.

"Kitty. I can't let you go if it means people will get hurt," he tells her and she should know this.

Her face falls. "We don't want to fight you, Pete but We will not go back to being half of ourselves nor will We allow ourselves to be locked up," she states, broaching no argument.

"I don't want to fight you either. I never wanted to fight you but you know who I am. What I stand for. Why I put on this costume and it hurts me to say this about you, Kitty but you, this you, enjoys hurting people. Enjoys coming up with ways to torment them."

"Is it our fault We find their screams of fear and pain a turn on?" she asks as if she is completely innocent on the issue.

Peter sighs. This is the problem exactly and as much as he doesn't want to fight her he can't let her go either. She just doesn't seem to realise what is right and wrong any longer.

"You see this is exactly why We said we both need time. You need to come to understand as We do that those rules are anachronistic. Those rules tell you that it is wrong to act as is your nature. How can it be wrong to be your true self?"

"Because it is not your true self," he argues again.

She rolls her eyes in what seems like boredom at this point. "We're going around in circles," she grumbles because they've had this argument, ad nauseam.

Peter runs his hands though his hair making it even more messy. "Do you even realise what you're asking of me?"

Her face becomes pained as if hating herself for doing this to him. "Of course We do. We love you, warts and all."

"Oh great, now I've got warts. I'm blaming Batroc the Leaper," he manages to crack a joke, which makes her smile albeit it's a little sad.

"Do you think this is easy for us either?" she asks him in all earnest, her expression showing she is as torn as he is. "We want nothing more than to be with you but We will not go back to being only half of ourself. **We. Will. Not**," she repeats her declaration, emphasising every word.

"Stalemate then," Peter describes their situation. She was also right a little bit back. They're going round in circles, repeating the same arguments, saying the same words but he can't see how to break this deadlock. She won't accept being separated from the symbiote or being locked up and he can't leave her like this, free to go off and do whatever she wants.

She makes a noise of frustration as if agreeing with him. She looks at him with pleading eyes. It's so weird to see such a look when he knows what Carnage is like. She is different to even 2 weeks ago. He can't quantify the difference but he is more certain than ever the longer this conversation has gone on that it exists.

"Ok," she says in sad acceptance. "If we have to do this can We get at least one more kiss for the road?" she requests, wanting one last pleasant memory before...well now she thinks on it violence to her is pleasant. Huh. Except in this case when it would be representing that the bond between her and Peter is being torn beyond repair.

Peter can't say no to that. Not when they're this close together after 2 weeks apart...which is the mistake. Once he starts he can't stop. He's lost in the taste of her, the smell of her, the feel of her. The same is true for her. They can't stop. Not until they're up on the roof of the building, clothes gone(well she was sorta not wearing any to start with but you know, just go with it), bodies entangled, moans, gasps, bringing each other to utter rapture.

Many hours later the two lovers are tangled up in a web hammock. Peter is asleep, the lack of it over the last couple of weeks finally catching up with him and she is just watching him sleep, recording every detail of his face to memory, her fingers gently tracing his features, sadness adorning her own features because she knows how this has to end. She leans over and kisses his forehead. "We love you," she says softly.

Then quietly, so as not to disturb him, she slips off the hammock, her symbiote re-emerging in her 'Carnage form', covering her body but not her face as she walks to the ledge of the building and looks out at the city. There was so much for her to do, to discover...especially about herself. She had said it to him earlier. About her only being a couple of weeks old. She needs time to discover who she really is, what her true nature is and she has to do that alone. Especially when she knows that Peter and her friends will, in the end, either rip her back into two or failing that, lock her up.

Neither option is acceptable. Therefore it leaves her no choice but to go away for awhile, no matter the fact her heart is breaking at having to leave Peter. She looks back one more time longingly at the man she loves before the symbiote covers her face over. She then leaps over the edge, sending out a symbiote webline as she swings away and vanishes into the New York skyline.

For Katherine Anne Pryde the journey has ended. For the being that calls herself Carnage the journey is about to begin.

* * *

_Author's Note: I know I'm giving Peter and Kitty/Carnage a lot of time here but it just feels like they need it. Anyway what I really wanted to get across is that something is distinctly different to Carnage this time. Enough of a something to give hope that she can be something other than the insane monster who revels in torture and slaughter. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; One Journey has Ended part 3._


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

**The next day at the Institute...**

Charles gazes up at the newest picture on his wall. Like every year it was a group photo of all the students. He takes in the differences...including those who have left for college, like Scott and Jean. Then there were those who had arrived over the course of this last year. Magik, Firestar, Liz Allen, Blank, Chloe...and you kinda can include Angel on the list, though he is kinda old to be considered a student. Same goes for Colossus who only joined after last year's Graduation and photo were taken.

Then there's Kitty. This is possibly the last photo taken of her before...it's still too heartbreaking and sad to even imagine what she is now.

Of course who isn't there yet are the most recent 'new recruits'. Even though it had been 2 weeks there was still some adjusting needed on both sides in regards to the former Hellions. Julian had already been called into the Professor's office...twice for a dressing down.

Charles knew Hellion would be difficult but he was already running at one punishment a week and don't get him started on Julian's arrogant, abrasive and condescending personality. The boy really did think he was better than everyone else. How this was going to work long term was anyone's guess at this point but for as long as Julian didn't cross the line(and he hadn't yet) Charles would try his damnedest with the young telekinetic.

Was going to be a long and busy summer no doubt. After all they had to be ready for the new term in the Fall and the new intake of students. Charles remembers his vision from Apocalypse of a future where hundreds of students were being welcomed and the one doing the welcoming was Emma.

Seemed so unlikely right now considering Emma's actions of late but if he's having faith in regards to his vision about Kitty, he guesses he has to have faith in that one as well. He hopes so. Emma could be so much more than what she chooses to be.

Thinking back on those visions has him wondering what his dear old friend Erik is up to. Magneto has been almost deathly silent this last year. He's not sure if that is a good or bad thing. Perhaps Erik is simply busy with that secret mutant nation of his. The one Charles can't find no matter how hard he tries. In that vision he saw Magneto and a small army at war over some island so is the reason Erik is so quiet is that he is building up that army?

Charles shakes his head. Is he really this cynical over Erik's actions now? Whatever happened to hope?

Speaking of hope though brings his thoughts to Clark, now wearing that outfit he saw in his visions, closer to becoming that symbol, that beacon of hope for the whole world. Despite Apocalypse's best attempts to derail that future it seems the ancient mutant did fail...or at least that is Charles' opinion.

Did that mean, though, the future can't be changed because there were things he saw he wishes wouldn't happen. Like whatever happened to Jean. Her transformation or consumption by the great fiery bird. He had seen no sign or hint what that was. The vision had never been complete or anything but there had been a feeling that Jean, of all people, would become the most terrible of enemies. He could not imagine it.

He could see her right now, out his window. She was packing her car for her trip to see her parents. Clark was helping(obviously since he was going with her) and they were playfully bickering/flirting. She looked so happy and carefree that it makes that vision seem even more impossible. He rubs his head. How much was a definite future and how much was only a possible future?

The issue could be his own prejudice of wanting some things he saw to happen and others not to because it was not all bad what he saw.

Can the future be changed?

In Jean's case Charles sincerely hopes so.

* * *

"Why are you packing now when we aren't leaving until after lunch?" Clark asks his oh so beautiful but at times baffling girlfriend as he helps load up her car. Also remember he's going to Boston with her to meet her parents. Yeah. He's not sure he's ready for that one.

"Because we don't all possess superspeed," she replies.

"But you do possess telekinesis," he points out.

"Can you not criticise, please. I have a system."

"A...system?" he asks, perplexed by that answer.

"It makes sure I don't forget anything."

Clark just looks at her. Wow. He means he knows Jean likes to keep her life ordered but a whole system just to pack her car to visit her parents? Seriously? "Can I ask a question?" he requests as he places a case exactly where she wants it.

"Of course."

"Do you miss this place when you're at college?"

"Yes and no."

"Glad you cleared that up," he says in Chloe-like snark.

Jean gives him a look before clearing it up. "Yes, I do miss this place. I've spent a large part of my life here. Before I went to college I spent more time here than I did at home. I miss my friends but on the other hand I do not miss some of the chaos that only happens around here. I do not miss the endless pranks or the gossiping. I'm a private person in many ways and I like to have a private life and not have it spread around the mansion in 5 minutes."

"So yes and no, I get it."

Jean smiles at him. "Why were you asking?" she wonders, though she might have an inkling.

"Because I'm moving out."

Yep, that confirms her inkling. "Why?" she wonders.

"Well it's not because I'm trying to get away from Ali," he only half-jokes.

Jean cocks her head slightly. "You know I don't think you've ever really explained to me what it is between the two of you."

Hasn't he? Probably not. He sighs. "Because I don't like to think about it. I was in a bad place."

"And she's a reminder," Jean deduces his issue with the punk rocker. She reminds him of something he would rather forget.

Clark rubs the back of his neck. "It's a long story."

And Jean can tell that standing out here is hardly the place to tell what seems like a very personal story. "We can talk about it when you're ready," she tells him, being completely supportive.

"Thank you," he says softly, his heart swelling up more with his love for her for being so understanding.

Jean gets them back on topic. "So why are you really moving out?"

"Because with not just the former Hellions here but the new intake in the Fall, me keeping my two halves separate and secret will become all but impossible," he reckons.

Jean can't really disagree with him.

"And besides what is Graduation but a moment of transition. One journey ending..."

"And another beginning," she finishes off the thought.

"I've loved my time here but it's time for a change. Also all that stuff you said about this place."

"Hmm, hmm?"

"Totally agree with you."

Jean smiles, walks up to him and gives him a kiss. "Well I guess that makes us quite a pair, huh, Mr Kent?" she says with playful affection.

"I would say so, Miss, soon to be Doctor, Grey," he says back in the same tone, playfully bopping her nose with his finger.

They grin stupidly at each other, staring into each other's eyes. Since they declared their love for each other, their bond feels deeper than ever and getting deeper all the time.

"I...uh...sorry."

Clark and Jean turn their head to find Scott, of all people, has shown up. There hasn't been much mending of the bridges between them in the last couple of weeks.

Jean tries to keep any irritation out of her voice at being interrupted again(something that seems to happen to them way too often) and be as polite as possible. She's got no desire to add to the aggro. "What is it Scott?"

"I was wondering...can I talk to Clark?" he requests. "Alone?" he tags on.

Clark arches an eyebrow. Wow, ok. This is new. He shares a look with Jean where he gets across that he'll agree to that.

"I'll, um, go double check my room and make sure I haven't forgotten anything," she makes the excuse to leave, making sure to give Clark a quick kiss before she goes. Not that she's rubbing it in Scott's face or anything. That would be so petty and not like her at all.

That leaves the two young men alone.

"So what can I help you with, Scott?" Clark asks, adopting his famous pose with his arms crossed over his chest. He watches varying emotions pass over the now shadeless mutant's face. On an aside, despite the currently poor state of their friendship, Clark was actually pleased that one good thing came out of the whole debacle with Zod. That being Scott's now fully repaired brain and control over his powers.

"I owe you an apology," the Alaskan native finally comes up with.

Mild surprise appears on the young Kryptonian's face. He never saw this coming. Especially considering its been 2 weeks. "About?" he decides to push Scott on.

"Everything probably," Scott has to admit and boy is his pride ever taking a hit here. "But especially about Emma. You were right."

"Scott, I wish to God I hadn't been," Clark admits his feelings on the issue.

"I get that. Still I do apologise. I honestly do not know what got into me."

"Well Brainiac for one. Zod for another."

Scott winces. He may not remember the possession by Zod but he has a fair impression now just what the Kryptonian General did while in his body and it was not pretty to say the least.

Clark spots the wince. "What Zod did was not your fault, Scott. If anything it's mine for failing to prevent his release," he expresses his guilt over it. He feels responsible. "And in all honesty we don't know just how long Brainiac was manipulating you. For example my guess is it was Brainiac who tipped you off on my investigation into Emma."

Scott could see that was very plausible. He never looked into who it was as much as he should have. What the hell was the matter with him? He can remember doing and saying everything but really can't recall the why. Why he was doing it.

"Also I can't judge you considering my various less than noble deeds while Apocalypse was trying to manipulate me so therefore I accept your apology Scott," Clark forgives him. After all people have forgiven him for how he acted while being under the influence. It would be double standards on his part if he didn't forgive Scott.

That makes Scott feel a little better. "What about Jean? How does she feel?" he wonders.

"Oh no. You're on your own with that one," Clark says. He's so not getting sucked into that. "Have you apologised to her yet?" he wonders. He guesses not because Jean would have said but never hurts to ask.

"Nope. Still working up the courage to. No offence but she's scarier than you."

"I'll give you that one but if you want some advise learned from painful, painful experience she prefers apologies in person and doesn't accept apologises written in a letter," he recalls his spectacular failed attempt to apologise to her around this time last year.

"Noted."

The two fall into silence as Clark uncrosses his arms and shoves his hands in his pockets. The tension between them has lessened now. "So have you actually talked to Emma since it happened?"

Scott's face falls. "No. Not sure what to say that won't end in a screaming match."

Clark can see the weight Scott is carrying. He knows that feeling all too well. "As someone who has a tendency to bottle everything up can I advise don't. It's taken a long time but it's only by getting my burdens off my chest have I started to be able to move on from Apocalypse. If clearing the air with Emma is what you need to do to release this burden then do it. At least then you'll know where you and she stand and if you're not prepared to do that then at least talk with someone, Scott. Keeping it inside...is not healthy."

"I know," he accepts but he just doesn't know where to even start with Emma this time. He'll have to confront her eventually but it isn't going to be today.

"And if all else fails go the Logan route and trash the Danger Room."

Scott reluctantly chuckles as he imagines himself doing that. "Tempting," he quips.

Clark chuckles along with his friend...and yep, you know what, Clark still wants to call him that. Their friendship may not be what it was but they can still be friends.

"Can you believe he and Storm are having a baby?" Scott asks, his own personal disbelief at it clear.

"Oh I know. I've had to hear all about it from Rogue who decided for some reason me, her ex, is the person who has to hear all her issues about it."

"Youch," Scott sympathises.

Clark's face saddens. "It's probably because she doesn't have Kitty to talk to now," he thinks. After all Kitty and Rogue were the original odd-couple when it came to being best friends.

"Yeah," Scott says, his tone sad and remorseful as he has to recall what has happened to Kitty. It's so wrong that that has happened to her. It's not fair at all. He has to hope that somehow, some way, one day they'll find her and help her.

Not wanting to linger on that Clark asks, pointing, "How's everything with your eyes?"

Scott smiles softly. "Well I am appreciating being able to see in colour again," he mentions wistfully. "I'd almost forgotten what it all looked like. As for my powers...getting there. Having to learn how to activate and deactivate them. That was never an issue before."

Clark nods along. "Yeah, I remember having to figure that out for my heat vision," he says, understanding what Scott is going through.

"Alex has had some...suggestions," the brown haired young man says with a grimace as he recalls his brother's 'suggestions'...if you even want to call them that.

Clark chuckles.

"I think, though, I'll still wear the visor when on a mission. It allows for more precise control than I think I'll ever be able to manage," the older boy airs his thinking.

"Also spares you having to come up with a new codename," Clark quips.

Scott laughs at that one. "I hadn't actually thought of that," he admits but Clark has a point. Keeping the visor means he can keep the codename of Cyclops. "So I hear you're going to meet Jean's parents," he raises.

"So I've been told," Clark jests about how it happened, using humour to hide how nervous he actually is about it.

"Good luck with that. Her dad is kinda intimidating," Scott recalls from when he had to meet Jean's parents, back when the two were dating.

"Well I am invulnerable to physical harm, Scott," Clark points out.

"That'll help I guess," he dead-pans.

"Thin ice, Scott. Thin ice," Clark remarks about where he and Scott stand right now and therefore he better be careful where he treads.

* * *

Round the back of the mansion, in the greenhouse, Martha and Ororo were having their regular morning tea before the white haired woman would depart to go visit her sister and tell her in person about the new life growing within. Ororo couldn't help but smile every time she thought about it.

Naturally Martha was very happy for her friend. Though it did bring a bit of melancholy as well as it reminded her of her own lost baby. Of course she never let it show. What she was letting show was that she wasn't feeling 100%. Hadn't been for a few days now.

"Are you sure you're feeling ok, Martha?" Ororo asks, concerned.

"I did see Hank and he couldn't find anything. He said if it hadn't cleared up by the end of the week he'll do more tests. I'm hoping it's just a bug. Maybe I caught yours," she jokes.

"I never had a bug," Ororo points out.

"What? Oh, yes. Sorry, sorry. My mind is a million miles away this morning this seems."

"So it seems," Ororo agrees as she sips on her tea but as she does so a crazy thought enters her head. Martha's illness always seemed to be more in the mornings than the afternoons and therefore maybe she does have the same 'bug'...or it's just a crazy thought...but what if? "Martha can I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course," the older woman permits.

"When was your last period?"

"What?!" Martha splutters, caught out by that question.

"Well it just occurred to me that you've been ill more early in the day rather than later...or to put it another way you've had morning sickness."

"That's ridiculous I had my last period..." she trails off as she tries to recalls when it was. "Oh," she says, in complete and utter shock.

Ororo smiles at the sheer silliness of her friend's expression. "You know I believe I still have a spare test lying around," she mentions.

"Uh huh," Martha says, still clearly stunned.

"Drink up your tea and I'll go fetch it."

"Uh huh."

Ororo smirks. Well this is going to make today more interesting.

* * *

"Do you think she's happier now her sisters are here?" Clark asks Sooraya in regards to Penance. Since he was leaving after lunch he was saying some of his farewells this morning, including to the former(or still current?) Monet St Croix. Of course this farewell included a hug as Clark remained one of the very few people who can give her any sort of physical contact.

"I think so though I believe I have said before I am not even certain she recognises them any longer," the veiled girl replies.

Clark sighs and looks at Penance with her utterly innocent expression. "There are moments I wonder about that."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean there are moments when just for a few seconds her expression changes and it's almost as if she remembers who she is but before she can grab the memory it slips away from her."

Sooraya looked at Penance and tries to recall if she has seen those moments. Perhaps she has.

"I promised to help her you know and I'm no closer to that than when I said it," he says with deep regret.

"I remember but you should not feel guilt."

"Shouldn't I?"

"No. It is not a promise broken. Just not fulfilled yet. I have faith there is a way. That you will find a way."

Or to put it another way, for Penance her journey has not yet reached its end.

"Not sure what you're basing that on, Sooraya," Clark says with a small scoff. He hasn't a clue how to help Penance become Monet again. Only Selene knows how it was done.

"Faith."

"Faith can be good, Sooraya but it can also be blind," he cautions her in putting too much in him.

"Not for as long as it is paired with reason," she argues. "Faith and reason are the shoes on your feet. You can travel further with both than you can with just one."

"And what _reason _is there in believing I will fulfil this promise?"

"The reason of seeing you perform the impossible nearly every day."

Clark shakes his head and laughs. "There is hardly anything impossible in what I do."

"Faith and reason, Clark. Perhaps you rely a little too much on reason and not enough on faith."

"There's a story behind that. It involves my parents' terrible, terrible decision to send me to Sunday School and a teacher whose view was that I was a creation of the Devil."

Sooraya has no idea how to respond to that.

* * *

**Daniels Residence, New York...**

"Ororo!" Vivian greets her sister warmly as the two woman share a hug and kiss each other on the cheek. "It's been too long," she remarks since they last saw each other.

"It has," Ororo agrees. It saddens her a little that her duties at the Institute restrict how often she can get away to visit her sister.

"Come in, come in," Vivian shepherds her sister inside.

"How's Carl?" Ororo asks after her brother-in-law.

"Oh he's fine. Out at work. Would you like something to drink?"

"Just some tea, thanks."

"I'll put the kettle on. Make yourself at home," Vivian tells her sister.

Ororo takes a seat and waits for her sister to return from the kitchen.

Vivian takes a seat opposite. "So what brings you round today?" she asks.

"Well I have some news actually. Something I wanted to tell you in person."

"Sounds serious," Vivian reflects, her brow furrowing slightly, hoping that whatever Ro is about to say isn't bad news.

"It kinda is."

Vivian reaches over and takes her sister's hand into her own. "Whatever it is you know I'm here for you."

"Thank you Viv," Ororo says with a smile, feeling her sister's love for her.

"So what is it?"

"Well, you know a couple of Christmases back you made mention of wanting to be an aunt."

"Yeah?" Vivian says cautiously before her eyes widen as she gets it. "Are you?"

Ororo nods.

Vivian squeals in delight and in moments is hugging her sister tightly. "Oh Ro, this is great! I mean I didn't even know you and Logan were trying for one."

"We weren't," the weather mutant has to confess.

Vivian arches an eyebrow and Ororo shrugs. What can she say?

"How far along are you?" Vivian wonders as she sits herself back down.

"About six weeks," she can report what she now knows about how old the foetus is.

"What tipped you off? Morning sickness?" Vivian wonders.

"I had a bit of an upset stomach but it wasn't overly serious so I thought it was just a bug. No, I found out another way," she says, referring to Zod.

"How did Logan take it?" Vivian asks, her eyes full of curiosity.

"Better than I thought actually."

"Is he excited?"

"Not sure that's the word. He's...accepting. Supportive."

Vivian hmms. "So are you two going to take the next step now?"

"You mean marriage?"

Vivian nods.

"I'm not sure we really need to formalise what we have with a ceremony, Viv," Ororo says to that. In all honesty despite being her and Logan a couple for over 18 months now marriage has never really entered her head. It doesn't seem necessary to her.

"Then how can I organise your bacherolette party?" Vivian pouts making her sister roll her eyes.

"You can organise my baby shower, how about that," Ororo throws her sister a bone.

"Well ok, as long as we can make it a double celebration," the brown-haired woman says cryptically.

Ororo looks puzzled. "What double celebration?"

"Well lets just say if you hadn't come here to see me I was going to come see you to tell you the news."

"What news?"

"What do you think?" Vivian asks with a coy smile.

Ororo looks intensely at her sister and blinks. "Are you?" she repeats Viv's words from earlier.

"Yep," Viv says as her smile grows enormously.

This time it is Ororo getting up to give the hug...although she did not squeal. That would be undignified. "Have you told Evan?" she asks about her nephew as she sits back down.

"That's part of the reason I was coming to see you. You can get in touch with him easier than I can."

"Has he not been keeping in touch?" Ororo asks, her tone serious and disapproving.

"Not as often as Carl and I would like."

Ororo sighs. Seems she needs to have words with her difficult at times nephew. Though just getting to see him can be tricky. The Morlocks do not like unannounced visits...apart from Clark maybe. Perhaps she could ask him to arrange it.

"I also wanted to come because..."

"Because?"

"What are the chances this little one will be a mutant?" she asks, patting her stomach. "After Evan..." Viv sighs at having to relive the difficulties with Evan. "I'll love them regardless," she makes clear. "I would just like to know."

Ororo could get where her sister was coming from. She had been separated from Evan far sooner than perhaps any parents would like to be from their child and Evan had been difficult. She knew how upsetting the whole situation had been for Viv and Carl when Evan ended up with the Morlocks. "There's always a chance, Viv because you carry the x-gene. As for knowing for sure, that requires doing a DNA analysis and even then, like yourself, it doesn't always become active. It's more Charles' and Hank's area than mine though about what the precise odds are. I'll arrange a meeting," she offers.

Vivian nods. "Thank you."

"Of course. You're my sister. I would do anything for you, Viv, you know that."

"I do. So about that double baby shower. I have ideas," the older Munroe says with a glint in her eye Ororo knows all too well. It spells trouble.

"Well it'll have to be a triple baby shower."

"Huh?"

"You remember Martha, right? Martha Kent."

Vivian nods. "What...are you saying...is she?"

Ororo nods as the ridiculousness of this situation just become apparent to her. All 3 of them...think of the hormones...and yes, that means the test she had Martha take came up positive. "In fact if I'm right she's probably just breaking the news to her family right about now."

* * *

**At the Institute...**

"Holy Jesus fucking Christ!" one red-headed pyrokinetic swears.

"That's definitely blasphemous," one dark-haired Kryptonian says back.

"Oh screw you!"

"One of these days this'll actually sink in when I say it but once again I'll pass, thanks."

"Children," Jonathan says sternly. "Enough, please. We're talking about your mother...and oh my God, we're having a baby!" he says in a shocked whisper.

"Well that took longer than I expected," Martha says dryly at Jonathan's delayed reaction. She had told him before they told the kids up here in their quarters. Her lips quirk up in mirth at the look in his face. As for herself...she felt like she was handling this quite well so far. May not last considering what happened last time...no, no. If she thinks on that she'll fall apart.

"So...you're really having a baby, mom?" Claire queries, still not able to believe it.

"I am."

"Uh..." she trails off, not sure what to say or do or even feel. She is just stunned.

Martha must admit it's funny to see her rather foul-mouthed daughter so shocked. "What about you, Clark? Anything to say?"

Clark wrings his hands nervously. Now the initial surprise is over...his guilt is hitting him like a million tons of bricks. "I...shouldn't...after last time..." It was all his fault after all.

Martha's face saddens. "Clark, honey. We forgave you for that," she assures him.

"Yes son, we did," Jonathan joins in. "It was an accident. It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was," he mumbles, his eyes on the floor, unable to meet his parents' gazes. Even if they had forgiven him he can never forgive himself for being that stupid, careless and thoughtless. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up to find himself looking into his mother's forgiving eyes.

"Clark. I don't hate you. I'm not angry at you. I let all of that go because you're my son and I love you," she tries to convince him.

"I'm sorry, mom," he says, his voice choking on emotion, on the verge of crying.

Martha pulls his head to her bosom. "I know you are," she says, kissing the top of his head. Clark can seem so powerful, so invulnerable but you scratch under that surface and his heart is just as vulnerable as everyone else's. She is well aware of how much he blames himself for that incident. Aware even if he never says it himself because she's his mother. Not to mention...after she discovered he had run away how much she blamed herself for pushing him away. Yeah, she can excuse herself over her pain of losing her unborn baby but she won't excuse herself. When she discovered he was gone it was the same pain of loss. Twice in a matter of days. God, she loathes remembering that summer. Is it any wonder they rarely talk about it.

Claire sits, twiddling her thumbs, deeply uncomfortable and unsure what to do. She and Clark had already had this talk back in Metropolis a couple of Christmases back and considering she had killed those MRD guys she found herself unable to be any sort of judge on him. Though it did help her understand her brother a lot better as to what motivates him to be Superman.

"We can't undo the past," Jonathan speaks up. "We all have things we wish we could take back but we can't. All we can do is move forward and not repeat our mistakes. Tearing this family apart for any reason would have been a terrible mistake so we forgive because we love...and I know we'll all love this new baby who will have two older sibling as great role models."

"Well me maybe," Claire mutters, unable to help herself.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Clark mutters back as he pulls back from his mother and wipes away a stray tear from his eye.

Martha chuckles, blinking away the tears in her eyes caused by this deeply emotional moment. She feels Jonathan put a protective arm around her waist and hold her close. This why she loves this family. They all love and support each other. Even Clark and Claire, no matter how much they bicker.

Was this totally unplanned? Yep, you betcha. Hadn't entered her head to try again for a baby but now that she is pregnant how can she be anything but happy. Because of last time there will always be worries but she'll push them to the back of her mind. This baby is going to be brought into a happy, loving family.

You know Graduation is all about new beginnings and it seems the Kent family is about to get its own. It is certainly going to make the next year interesting, that is for sure.

* * *

"I know, Lockheed. I miss her too," Illyana finds herself confessing to the little purple dragon as they sit together on Illyana's bed. Ever since Kitty vanished her pet had been depressed and for some reason had been using Illyana as a substitute owner.

Not that Illyana is really complaining. She's not. She likes Lockheed and is frankly just as depressed as he is. She hasn't felt as bad as this since she ended her relationship with Clark.

She just wonders where she went wrong. She really thought she could help her friend. Help Kitty not become just like her with a dark, corrupted soul...or rather what's left of her soul. From what she knows, which is just as she said to Kitty once is more than you think but less than she would like, she failed...miserably.

Illyana lets out a sad sigh. She had told Kitty that her inner light was stronger than her darkness. Maybe that still holds up. From what she knows Kitty...Carnage, she mentally corrects herself, hadn't embarked on a killing spree or done much of anything as far as anyone knew.

That was a good sign right?

Or maybe Illyana's living in forlorn hope.

Though it seems odd to her that she feels any kind of hope. As many have oft remarked she has a rather fatalistic personality.

"Is this another thing I have to kill Clark for?" she asks Lockheed.

The dwarf dragon blinks at her.

"Yep. Probably is," she confirms to herself.

Lockheed rises off the bed and plants himself on her shoulders, rubbing his cheek against hers. Her other self just beneath the surface has never seemed to phase the little dragon. Illyana scratches him under his chin in return.

Illyana wishes she had been there, with Kitty, when it happened. Maybe she could have done something. That feeling is doubly intense when you consider, that in the end, she wasn't even needed. Clark stopped Zod on his own. Though his plan that ended with having his ass whooped was just dumb. He must be slipping.

The blond sorceress looks at Lockheed. "Even though it makes no sense Lockheed, I'm not going to give up on her," she tells him. "She's out there somewhere and somehow we'll bring Kitty back. Just don't ask me to explain why I'm saying this because I have no clue. It's all based on a very shaky foundation of hope that underneath all that darkness our friend is still in there. Don't know why I believe that except that Clark is dead. He is so, so dead," she swears because it has to be his influence on her. Has to be.

The alternative explanation is that Illyana's not as lost in the darkness as she thought she was. That somewhere under it all is a good person rather than a monster.

Yeah, no, much more likely it's all Clark's fault.

* * *

"So how does it feel to know you're going to be a big brother?" Jean asks her boyfriend. They had just left the Institute and were on their way to Boston.

"Exciting...and scary," Clark answers truthfully.

Jean smiles at him and for him and Mr and Mrs Kent. They were such good people. They deserved this slice of happiness.

Clark glances over at Jean. She knows about the pregnancy but what she doesn't know is what happened last time. What he did. He's not sure how to tell her. Rao, he swears in his head. There are just...there are still many secrets he has that he has not told her. How does he even start with this one? He has no answer right now. He'll have to think on it. "So why are we driving when I can fly us there in minutes?" he asks the question that has been bothering him ever since Jean insisted that they drive to her parents.

"Because I like having my car for my independence," she replies.

"I can fly the car as well you know. For me it's not heavy...at all," he just has to make clear.

"Maybe also I want to just spend a leisurely few hours with the guy I'm in love with."

"Leisurely? America's roads? Do you actually drive all that often?" he asks her in disbelief because having flown over America's roads many time, helped people caught in accidents many times, leisurely is not a word he would use to describe them.

"Oh my god," she mutters, looking to the heavens only very briefly, before returning her focus on the road.

Course Clark's other reason for his griping is that Jean's car is kinda small and he's a big guy and therefore it is a bit cramped.

Jean turns on the radio...only to turn it off immediately when it turns out to be of J. Jonah Jameson's rants. "That guy is a tool."

"Preaching to the choir."

"Please say you're not thinking of getting an internship there. I've never understood why Peter keeps working for the guy."

"Jean, don't take this the wrong way please but your family is comfortably middle-class. Peter and his aunt aren't. He needs the money to support himself and her and Jameson was willing to pay for his pictures of Spider-Man."

Jean can't disagree with him. Her family don't count as poor by any stretch of the imagination. "You didn't deny my first point," she realises.

"Is it my first choice? No but the Bugle is on my list of options," he has to concede.

Jean shakes her head in slight disbelief. "What I don't get is how does Jameson link Peter, I mean Spider-Man, to the global earthquakes?" she asks in relation to the topic of one of JJ's many anti-Spider-Man rants in the wake of Zod's attempt to reshape the planet. "That's just..."

"Crazy?"

"Amongst other descriptions, yes."

"I do not know what Jameson's beef is with Spider-Man. Neither does Peter. From the day Spider-Man started getting noticed Jameson has seemed to have this irrational dislike of him."

"Does it bother you?"

"That Peter gets unfairly picked on, yes."

"No. That's not what I meant. You stopped Zod. You saved the world but the world doesn't know you did it. It doesn't even realise how close it came to being destroyed. You're getting zero credit."

"Good. I'm glad," Clark says, slightly surprising her.

"Why?"

"Never wanted credit. Never wanted praise. Besides the whole thing is my fault because I screwed up."

"That's not true, Clark," she argues. "You are not responsible for Brainiac and it was a big part of this," she reminds him...again. Despite her reassurances that it wasn't his fault over the last couple of weeks he just will not seem to let go of his self-blame.

"Hnn," Clark demurs before he enlightens Jean with a confession. "I never really wanted to be Superman...at first. That's not why I came to the Institute. I came because I had decided I was tried of denying who I was. What I was. I wanted to discover who I was, what I could do, learn how to control my powers properly. I never even thought about being an X-Man. Again, not at first but your guys' passions and beliefs got to me. Still, I would have been perfectly happy being some anonymous X-Man and letting you guys take all the credit. The whole becoming Superman was never the plan. It just sorta...happened," he finishes lamely.

"Want to know what I think?"

"Of course Jean. I always value your opinions," he says with complete sincerity.

"I don't think you were ever meant to be just an X-Man. I think you were always meant to be something more. X-Men stand for something very particular. Human/Mutant equality and while you will stand up for that I think you are destined to stand for something...broader. Something greater."

Clark sighs. "Jean, I think you know my issues with being 'destined' for anything."

Yeah, she does. "Sorry. Couldn't think of a better word," she apologises. "But that is my opinion," she confirms for him. "Being at the mansion...was just a step on your journey and now you've graduated onward to the next step, whatever that is."

"One journey has ended. Another is about to begin," Clark recounts those words from what seems like oh so long ago. It may not have actually been Jor-El but those words...they were good ones.

"Exactly," Jean agrees, flashing him a warm smile.

"That can wait. For right now I think I'll just settle for a quiet summer spent with you," he says, truly meaning it.

Jean's chest feels warmer just hearing that. Yeah. A quiet summer would be a nice change of pace.

* * *

**15 days ago(the moment Clark escaped from the Phantom Zone)...**

High above the Earth a large, brilliant white ball of light flashes into existence. The ball then divides into a dozen smaller balls of light which arc across the surface of the planet. One falls down in the Arctic. Another in Australia. The others fall upon every continent of the Earth.

In Argentina Pedro Fernandez is tending to his flock of cattle when there is an almighty splash from the nearby river. Curious he goes to investigate. His eyes widen when emerging from the water comes a wraith-like entity, grey, decaying, tattered robes hanging from its form.

In his native Spanish he exclaims, "My God!"

The creature then flies right at him and Pedro Fernandez knows no more.

* * *

_Author's Note(Brace yourselves I got a lot to say): Clark generally doesn't hold a grudge anyway but considering his experience with Apocalypse it would make even less sense if he continued to hold one against Scott. So, yep to quote Syndrome, Martha and Jonathan did get biz-zay and Jean's words that the Kents deserve a little slice of happiness is exactly why I decided to make Martha pregnant. After all if they managed it once there is really no good reason they couldn't do it again. Fun fact; Jean's little speech about Clark's destiny being greater than just being an X-Man I was originally going to give to Scott as part of the rapprochement between him and Clark but as I wrote it I realised it would fit in better at the end with Clark and Jean. That whole small scene is also why the battle with Zod didn't play out on a bigger scene with the world not knowing a thing about it so Jean could ask him about that very fact. It also reflects my original intention when I started this story which was less Clark standing out on his own and more just being part of the team, an X-Man. An idea that lasted about 6 months, if that. In the end, I guess, it just boils down to the fact, if it wasn't obvious from my writing, that Superman is one of my favourite characters and I just wish he was written and portrayed better than he is far too often so that instinct won through in the end and these series of stories ended up being just a different journey for Clark to becoming Superman. What would be different if he was just an X-Man? Well this whole series would be shorter for one thing(grins wryly) because Clark would be having less on his own adventures. He wouldn't have met Spidey for another and without that meeting there would probably be no Peter/Kitty because the two would never have met...or at least not until later in their lives and Carnage would probably just be Kasady. Him saving Wanda from being brainwashed really only happened because he ran into her while out patrolling so she may have ended up being an intractable villain, remaining part of the Brotherhood instead of his 'sister'. Possibly wouldn't have met Bart, depending on how I would write the meeting with Andrea differently. Same might be said for Cyborg meaning Victor doesn't get saved but instead gets turned into the leader of the Reavers like Lionel was intending. As for what else, couldn't say without reviewing backwards through the whole thing but you know the saying involving a butterfly flapping its wings, Clark not taking up being a solo hero would have consequences that ripple outward across the whole series, changing, not everything but a lot of it. The light hitting the Arctic was obviously Clark and (spoiler alert) I mentioned the one landing in Australia because that's Raya. The Phantom we see at the end of the Zod episode in Argentina is in fact Bizarro. And that is it for Year 3. Done. Thank you to everyone who wrote reviews for not just this story but all of them and that is relevant from what I'm about to say in my second note. Please read on._

_AN1: 10 years. Go look it up. I started the first story of this series back in May 2010. I never imagined it would go on this long. Of course its length has become its problem. I have written so much that there is no doubt story threads I have completely forgotten about. Getting through Year 3 I tried to focus on the main beats more and everything else less, pushing lots of characters into the background. My main aim was to get Clark through Graduation from High School and have him prepared to move out the mansion because it is a fairly natural stopping point, if I wanted to stop and that is the dilemma I now have. I'm not short on ideas for this universe. In fact I have a whole sketched out series of stories stretching years into the future(which I might put up as a bonus chapter if you all want to see it). No the issue is motivation. Whether I really want to carry on. 10 years is a hell of a long time and it has been harder and harder for me to find the reasons to keep writing this universe. Year 3 alone has taken 5 years plus when it has probably been the shortest since that very first story. It may well be time to stop and move on to something else. Have I decided 100%? No but at the very least I'll be taking a long break from it. The other thing I might do is write an epilogue of sorts with Logan(Days of Future Past style) waking up after changing history and discovering what the world now looks like so we can see where some of the characters end up many years in the future._

_AN2: As ever hope everyone is safe and well._


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